The reason most think that walking for weight loss isn’t really a good way to get in shpe is that it seems too easy to give results. The activity in itself doesn’t burn a lot of calories if you do it for 10 or 15 minutes 3 times per week.

Why Walking for Weight Loss Works

The reason this activity does work for getting in shape is that it is very easy to stick to. For me, the daily walks are a form of relaxation, a sort of meditating cool down. I would just tie my shoes, take my mp3 player, leash my dog and head out for an hour of listening to music, audio books or just quietly enjoying the nice weather and the occasional bird song.

Spring and early summer are perfect for this. So is autumn when the weather is nice walking in Winter in my experience has to be done before sun down, otherwise it’s not really enjoyable. In contrast, Spring and Summer nights are perfect for this.

Finally, walking for weight loss is low stress. As a form of exercise it’s easy on the joints and muscles. As a mental challenge it’s easy, because you don’t have to flinch at the thought of the tough workout planned for the day. As a bonus, walking acts anti-inflammatory on the whole body.

Walking for Weight Loss: An in-depth Look

Ina a couple of months I was able to lose 10-12 Holiday pounds I had gained after Christmas, New Years and a series of family holidays There are many online calculators claiming walking for an hour burns between 100 and 300 calories depending on the terrain, your speed and your weight.

I think that trying to calculate the exact calorie burn is a fools errand. The focus instead should be on watching what you eat and also getting in as many walking sessions as possible. Some days I managed to walk twice, but most often I’d walk once per day, 6-7 times per week.

The cool thing about walking as a tool to lose weight is that the more weight you need to lose, the more effective walking is. The reason for this is that all your extra pounds act as resistance and make the exercise harder. It’s like using a weighted vest.

How to Walk for Weight Loss

• Walk 6-7 days per week. A single session burns a small amount of calories, but is very easy to do. When you do it every day, the calories burnt start to compound after just 3 or 4 weeks and you start seeing rapid results.
• Once or twice a day. If possible, try to walk twice on the weekends.
• Walk for 30 to 60 minutes. Start small and gradually increase time.
• Walk on flat or incline surfaces. Incline walking is a trick I learned from the Hollywood Physique. It increases calorie burn significantly but at the same time keeps the joint stress super low.
• Listen to music or audio books. Provided it is safe, walking and listening to an audio book (I went through a bunch of books while walking in the park. I also listened to some language tapes which was also lots of fun.
• Take your dog. I love my lab Lucky and he enjoys those walks with me too.
• Safety first. Be careful– don’t listen to loud music if walking in the evenings or in a questionable area.
• Walking in the rain. It’s actually fine to walk in the rain. Just get a nice waterproof hooded jacket and you are set.

Walking for Weight Loss Resources

• Diet is king. Walking for weight loss only works if your calories are in check. Personally I had great success in the past by skipping meals as described here ==> Easy Diet Plan
• Intense exercise before walking. Do a 15-25 minute intense workout, such as these body weight circuits. In this way walking serves to both cool you down from the workout and actually burn off the fat that has been released from the fat storage during the high intensity exercise.
• Walking for weight loss and your health. Here’s a great article on the anti inflammatory effect of walking ==> Why Walking is Necessary for Good Health – Even If You Are Extremely Fit and Lean
• The lovely photo courtesy of jenny downing

And let me tell you, the guy was built! He told us stories of doing handstand walks around the block when he was our age. Even now, some 10-15 years later, the guy is still in kick ass shape.

It took me a while to get a hang of these but it was worth it. Various L-position holds, like the ones described in the new Convict Conditioning 2 give your abs a run for their money. In, fact, I think the l-pull up covers probably half of your body’s muscles. Talk about being efficient. Another reason I like these pullups is that you can’t cheat or kip with them. It’s a move that demands total control of your body.

What’s the L-Pull up

The l-pullup,a variation where you stick out your legs in front of you so that your body forms an L, is so efficient because there is constant tension on the abs. Because the primary function of the core and abdominal muscles is stabilization – i.e. prevention of movement, the best way to train them is with various holds.

The trick is to try to control the swinging of your body which is caused by the displaced center of gravity. The l-pull up taxes both the top and the bottom of your abdominal muscles. So both the six pack (rectus abdominis) and the internal and external obliques (v-cut or lower abs) get trained.

The reason for this is that your torso pulls down on the sternum (this works the sixpack – rectus abdominis) while the legs pull down on the external obliques and hip flexors (so you get a lower ab workout too.

How to Master the L-Pull-up

The basic technique is simple. You hang from a pullup bar, raise your legs to 90 degrees and then pull up with your lats.

I suggest not going all the way down initially until you build strength and learn to keep your balance because relaxing the shoulders will make the move infinitely harder. Here are a few increasingly harder l-pull-up variations

• Bend knee l-pull-up This is the easiest version as it pretty much eliminates ab strength
• One bent knee l pull up. Keep one leg straight and one leg bent. Make sure to work both legs
• Straight leg l –ull-up. The real deal.
• l-pull-up with a weighted vest/ If you’ve got access to a weighted vest, it will make a world of difference in your training.
• l pull up with ankle weights or a light dumbbell held between the feet. Now this is for people who are hungry for punishment. Because of the long lever of the legs, even a light ankle weight or dumbbell will seem like a lot.

L-pull-up Video

Here’s a video of the L-pull up we shot in 2010. These bad boys are still tough for me. As with all bodyweight exercise, the fastest and easiest way to get better at them is to… lose weight!

Yes, carrying excess weight and trying to master body weight exercises is a backwards approach

L-Pull-up Action Plan

Here are a few ideas for your l-pull up workout. At this point in my training I think it’s a good idea to switch pull up variations once every 3 to 6 weeks. So for example you can work up to 20 pullups in one variation and then switch to another, very dissimilar one. Say wide grip pullups then close grip chin ups. Same for l-pull-ups. Focus on them for a while and then drop them for something else.

I wanted to end the article with a pic of Bruce Lee (above), descending in a l-pull up position down a rope in the outstanding 1973 movie Enter the Dragon.

“The name’s Bond… James Bond”

Daniel Craig bulked up significantly for his first role. For the second movie, he was a bit leaner, a bit less no-neck. The reason for this was that his Bond was now portraying a more refined version of the agent.

Daniel Craig’s Body Transformation Trainer

When Daniel Craig was told he was going to be Bond, he gave up smoking except for the odd cigar. He also got in touch with Simon Waterson, ex-marine and trainer to the stars, who had also worked with Hale Berry, Chris Evans, and Pierce Brosnan to name a few.

Daniel Craig had trained before (check him out for example in the Tomb Raider movie with Angelina Jolie as well as in the excellent Layer Cake), but never to this level. His diet regimen was based on avoiding certain foods after a certain time.

Simon Waterson and Craig exercised five times a week, with the weekends off. This included the freedom to drink alcohol, which was prohibited during the week.

Simon Waterson’s philosophy is to put his celebrity clients through lots of circuit training to keep their heart rate elevated and thus stimulating muscle growth and burning fat at the same time. The workout included circuits, pullups, push ups – nothing really new. Simple but definitely not easy.For fatloss Craig would hop on the bike after the weights.

Daniel Craig’s Body Transformation Workout

Here’s a circuit training workout created by Daniel’s trainer. A circuit raining workout simply means going from one exercise to another while trying to minimize the rest. So you build muscle and burn fat simultaneously.

Pictured above – Daniel Craig in Casino Royale (left) and Quantum of Solace (right). As you can see, he was much bigger in the first Bond. His shoulders and traps were huge.

VIDEO: Can Working out Actually Make You Look WORSE?

Here are the exercises for Daniel Craig’s body transformation routine:

• Clean and Jerk. Stand upright with heels on the ground. Grab a barbell like you are going to deadlift it. Lift to your mid thighs. Now shrug up your shoulders, extend your knees, ankles and hips and flip the bar your chest, pushing the elbows forward. Finally press it up.
• Squat. Simon recommends the squat to be done without locking out at the top.
• Bench Press. The traditional bench press is performed here with a 3 seconds lowering and 1 seconds up. Again, don’t lockout at the top.
• Pull ups. With an overhand grip pull yourself up so that at least your chin is above the bar. Better yet – touch the chest to the bar.
• Dips – basic parallel bar dips. Lower till your elbows reach 90 degrees.
• Barbell Curls. Using a straight bar and full range of motion, curl the weight without jerking it or using your shoulders. Squeeze the biceps.
• Dumbbell Lateral Raises. Simon recommends L-lateral raises where you bend you arms at 90 degrees and lift them to shoulde level. Make sure to pull the weights with your shoulders/upper arms in order to feel the side delts working.

Sets and Reps

Do 4 “giant sets” this means going from the first to the last exercise 4 times. Perform 15 reps on each exercise with as little rest as possible when moving to the next. Rest a minute after each circuit. Perform this routine for 6 weeks 3-4 times per week.

Simon Waterson on Daniel Craig’s Determination

Here are a few comments and observations from Danial Craig’s trainer regerading his work ethics and attitude. I believe these are the real secrets behind the guys with great physiques.

In fact, here’s an article that explains how effort is the most important thing when it comes to muscle growth ==> Does Rep Count Even Matter? Controversial Findings of a Recent Study!.

Here’s a photo from the latest Bond movie, Skyfall, coming this Fall. As you can see, Daniel Craig has a solid development of his back musculature. This is one of the core philosophies of his trainer – to prioritize the posterior chain muscles for better posture and muscular balance.

This is something you won’t see on many of the guys in the gyms who only train the front of the body (pecs and biceps). Huge mistake.

Simon Waterson reports that after a few months of training for his role, Daniel Craig was performing with a body of an athlete. He had 100% focus on what he wanted to achieve.

To spice things up, Simon decided to compete against Craig in the workouts. So instead of simply coaching him, they trained together and pushed each other. I can attest to the effectiveness of working out with a fit and even stronger partner. It will result in the best gains of your life.

Best Workouts for a Daniel Craig Body

Here are my two favorite workouts for a visually striking body like Daniel Craig.

• Visual Impact This workout is great for beginners and intermediates and will give you a strong, muscular and lean body. It is balanced between size and strength. Highly recommended.
• The Hollywood Physique transformation system is designed to give you a visually striking body that looks MUCH MORE muscular than it is. The trick is that you will get super lean and also emphasize the muscles that give the illusion of muscularity – the chest, shoulders and biceps. Please guys – this is not a beginners workout.

If you don’t have experience in the gym, choose Visual Impact instead. The Hollywood Physique is for people who have already gained some muscle mass, but are not quite satisfied with their body and want the physiques of guys like Daniel Craig, Ryan Reynolds, Brad Pitt, etc.

Hope you enjoyed this article on Daniel Craig’s Body Transformation. I personally immensely enjoyed Casiono Royale and am looking forward to the 3rd Daniel Craig Bond movie this fall. Hope it’s not another Quantum of Solace…

They are making a third Batman movie with Christian Bale. I’m stoked. As a side note – if you haven’t seen Batman Begins, please do so. It is even better on my second viewing.

Back to pushups. Why do I consider this routine the best one? It works fast, it is flexible – adapts to your schedule. It avoids overuse injuries. And, you can take it as far as you decide.

The Best Pushup Workout Routine

• Train every other day. This ensures a lot of progress and a lot of rest for your ligaments and tendons. These are the real roadblocks because they recover slowly.
• Rest on Sunday Please, at least once a week, just go for a walk in the sun (or rain). Your body and mind need to rest. Especially your mind.
• Every set is a new record.Every set you will ever perform should be better than the last one by 1-5 reps. Obviously at first the jumps will be higher – for example set 1 – 10 reps, set 2 – 15 reps.
• Do chest dominant pushups So the grip is slightly wider than shoulders. The chest is a huge muscle compared to the triceps which is the limiting factor in shoulder grip pushups.
• Rest 5 minutes – rest between sets should be 3-5 or more minutes. Basically you should rest completely.
• Do 2-3 sets. You will do mini workouts of 2-3 sets. I personally do only 2 sets. The first set will be a personal record. The second set will beat the first set.
• Many mini workouts – fit as many of these 2 or 3 set workouts in your day as possible. For example 2 workouts – morning and evening. Or more – if time permits.
• The repetition method you will get stronger using the repetition method. The effort in the last reps is what counts. Note that the rest between sets and between mini workouts should be as big as practically possible.
• Three weeks on, one off – I’ve talked about this before. Fatigue piles on in the body, so you can’t train with this intensity forever. So rest for a week and start over. You will start over usually lower than the last training week but it’s ok.
• Adapt – if you do other training, do pushups on push day or chest day, etc.
• Optimal hand position – as I wrote above, the pushups should be chest dominant. How to find you best stance? Lie on your stomach and then place your hands on the ground to push yourself off in the most comfortable position. This is your pushup position.
• Tempo – the tempo is fast but controlled. Slower descent and fast elevation.

Note: Coach Paul Wade just released the sequel to his body weight training masterpiece Convict Conditioning.

This one is called Convict Conditioning 2 and covers things like L-sit progressions (which I listed here), grip training with pullup bar holds, joint health, calf training and much much more. I’ve already got it and am very happy with this addition to my fitness library.

Here is a summary of the best pushup workout routine – do 2-3 sets with 3-5 minutes of rest in between with as many reps as possible, beating your record each time; train as many times as you can in a given day, train every other day and rest on Sunday and every 4th week.

Vaclav Gregor: It was May 2007 and after months of thinking about it I finally decided to go to the gym. Or at least check how it all works in there. The first day I had to go with my friend, because I was pretty scared of all the big guys who are going to be there.

The first day was pretty simple, I went there, saw all the scary machines, barbells and dumbbells. However, I was determined to start going to the gym, so I asked what I need in order to start working out and went home. Two days later me and my friend finally went to the gym to have our first workout.

We asked the staff to show us which machines should we use (yes we thought machines are the best way to build muscles, but hell it was our first day), how many reps and sets should we do per each exercise, what body parts to train in each session and how to breath during the lift.

I was used to playing lots of sports, but lifting weights was something completely new to me and the stress that this movement with additional weights had on my body was enormous. My muscles were completely shocked.

I was sore for the next two weeks, just from this single workout session. But that was to be expected, because I was only 15 at that time and like I said I never lifted weights in my life. I was weak, without any natural strength and lacking muscle mass big time.

From Skinny to Buff – the Beginning

The first three months were just an introduction to weight lifting and meant basically getting comfortable with the weights. I learned how to breathe correctly and I started evaluating my strength better. Meaning I was better at picking up the right weights to the lifts based on the give amount of sets and reps.

VIDEO: Are You Targetting the Right Kind of Muscle?

I was going to the gym twice a week and doing full body circuits, one exercise per body part, three sets with ten reps. This would not be so bad for the beginner level in the early age.

Two Problems

First there is no timing of your rest time. Second in my early training days I was lead to believe that machines are better because they are safe and easier. Well, I was wrong. Machines are the worst thing to work out with.

And not only this, my lifting technique was also terrible. I was going to failure, lifting more than I should and not doing a full movement. Today I could have way more muscle mass if I knew what I know today back then.

I remember that when I was doing a bench press my friend did more work on his bicep than I did on my chest. It was just pathetic.

From Skinny to Buff – Working Out vs. Training

It always makes me cry when I see guys doing the same mistakes over and over again. From my friend John Barban I learnt that there are two types of guys who go to the gym. The first group goes there to work out and lift weights and the second group goes there to train.

My guess is that you don’t really see a difference between two groups and words like weight lifting, working out and training sounds the same to you. Well, for me they are not.

Going to the gym to work out and lift weights means that you don’t care about the workout and what effect it has on your body. You want to push something heavy on the bench press and see your biceps pumped from the curls in the mirror. This is how 96% of guys spend time the gym.

They go there to have fun, to improve their ego by trying to lift enormous weights while having their buddies sweating blood from helping them push the bar up. Then they rest for ten minutes and go do few sets of bicep curls to failure followed by some stupid crunches.

I know one thing for certain, if this is how you would describe your workout day, you are preventing yourself from building a good looking body. Here are few steps to correct this:

• Go to the gym with purpose of training not just working out. This little shift changes a lot. If you treat your workouts like this, they will suddenly have a purpose, become important, you will make sure you do everything right.
• Time your rest periods, usually something around 60-120 seconds works the best, it really depends on the workout intensity, but it’s a good start to take a timer and just have 90 seconds rest periods.
• Don’t use machines if you work out for longer than three months. If you already know the gym environment, go and pick some dumbbells and barbell. Free weights are the way to masculine body, not some fancy machines you see on TV.
• Get a workout that is designed around these principles, if you don’t have years of training experience, let somebody else who already does design your workouts, just make sure they know their stuff.

If you don’t look the way you want, it may not be your fault, nobody taught you how to train or eat. However, it’s now your responsibility to learn how to do all this to get a killer looking body. Nobody else will, you have to do the work to get the reward.

I worked out with no workout plan, without timing my rest and with terrible form for almost three years. And surprisingly enough, I looked the same. After three years of going regularly to the gym.

There was definitely something wrong. At first I thought that there must be something wrong with me. I said to myself: I’m working out like everybody else, but I still look the same, so there must be something wrong with me and I must have screwed up genetics, right? WRONG.

I May Not Have the Genetics of Arnold

but that doesn’t mean I can’t build a masculine body. It was something else. After weeks of self-pity and bitching about my crappy genetics, something shifted inside my mind and I decided to give this one more chance.

If what I am doing is not working, I must try something else. So, is instead of reading bodybuilding magazines, talking to personal trainers and spending time on bodybuilding forums I took a different approach.

I started studying biology and anatomy. I started talking to women about what muscles are attracted on men. I started researching different workout styles, especially those that are under the radar of the average fitness enthusiasts.

And instead of following advice from bodybuilders, who have exceptional genetics and are on steroids are decided to follow advice from a friend of mine who looked like an action movie star and always have his gorgeous girlfriend waiting for him after the workout.

I made friends with few female models and got into discussion with them about masculine guys. I started learning from guys who have about 15 years of experience, knew the behind doors stuff in professional bodybuilding and supplement industry. I got a workout that has very strict structure and was mainly focused on shoulders and back. After following a completely different approach I transformed my body immensely.

On the before photo I already had about three years of workout experience. However, I looked exactly the same as I did three years before taking that shot.

What to Do to Go From Skinny to Buff

It may or may not come as a surprise to you, but professional bodybuilders are not really attractive to women. I doubt that Alessandra Ambrosio fancy Jay Cutler and I also doubt that Megan Fox spends her days by thinking about Ronnie Coleman. This is just not how it works.

If you take a closer look at what is physically attractive on guys, you will notice that the guys who have the natural masculine body have dominant shoulders, and back muscles. And also happen to date the most gorgeous women.

If you want to build a good looking body, try to aim for the look that natural fitness models, swimmers, gymnasts, action movie stars have. The body shape that is shoulder dominant.

In my muscle building journey I have learnt that if you structure your workout around shoulders, back and chest you will be amazed by the results and will build the body you want. Let’s say you have a workout plan for three days a week, here is how it can look like:

• Monday: Biceps/Shoulders/Chest/Abs
• Wednesday: Triceps/Shoulders/Back/Abs
• Friday: Legs/Shoulders/Chest/Abs

And here is an example of a Monday workout session:

Biceps

• Barbell Curl (3 sets x 8 reps x 90 sec rest)
• Hammer Curl(2 sets 12 reps x 70 sec rest)

Shoulders

• Military Press (5 sets x 8 reps x 90 sec rest)
• Barbell High Pull (3 sets x 8 reps x 90 sec rest)

Chest

• Incline Dumbbell Press (4 sets x 10 reps x 80 sec rest)
• Flat Dumbbell Flye (3 sets x 14 reps x 60 sec rest)

Abs

• Renegade Rows (4 sets x 6 reps x 30 sec rest)
• Hanging Leg Raises (4 sets x 10 reps x 60 sec rest)

This is just an example of a workout structure, there are many variations, but I recommend this one as a starter. You can use this structure and apply it on all of your workout sessions yourself or you can get somebody else to do it for you. My advice is to find somebody who looks the way you want to look and get his workout.

In fact after a good barbell lunge workout, done correctly, you will feel the exercise right in the areas sued for sprinting, jumping and climbing stairs.

The reason for the article however is that I see many people do barbell lunges with severe motion in the knee. This both hinders proper muscular balance of the complete leg musculature and places you at a greater risk of a knee injury.

What is the Barbell Lunge

The barbell lunge is a strength training exercise done best with a barbell on your back. You can of course do it with any other additional resistance such as a dumbbell, a kettlebell, sandbag, etc. but I find the basic barbell a great teaching tool for beginners and experienced people alike.

When done correctly, barbell lunges train your legs in a functional manner by mimicking one of the basic human movement patterns – descend and elevation one leg at a time while keeping the center of gravity of your body above the working front leg.

VIDEO: Can Working Out Make You Look WORSE?

Done in this manner, the barbell lunge, similarly to a proper barbell squat engages all the muscles of the leg – glutes (butt), quads (front of the upper leg) and hamstrings (back of the upper leg). Most people do lunges mainly as a quad exercise. This is a huge mistake.

How to Do Barbell Lunges

• Keep your chest up. This is a universal rule whenever you’ve got a weight on your back. Try to push the chest up and out. Your chest will be above your center of gravity.
• Place the bar on your muscles, not on the spine. In fact, squeeze the shoulder blades and place the bar on top.
• Brace the abs. This is the basic safety technique whenever we are doing resistance training. To protect the lower back, inhale some air in your stomach and keep the abdominal muscles semi contracted as if waiting for a punch. Note that bracing doesn’t equal sucking in. Sucking in the stomach is not safe.
• Keep the arch position in the lower back.. The arch position is the go-to pose for handling weights on your back. Simply contract the lower back muscles and keep them arched and tight.

• Walk on rails. This is a huge problem for people trying to learn the move. Don’t step with one foot in front of the other. It is simply too difficult to balance – like walking on a rope. Instead imagine each foot gliding on its own rail, as in photo B.
• Large steps. To properly engage the whole leg- both the anterior muscles (quads in the front of the leg) as well as posterior muscles (glutes, hamstrings, lower back) we need to take a large step. Small strides shift the focus to the quads only.
• Keep the weight above the front leg. Most people are taught to do lunges by sitting completely upright. But actually in the real world the center of gravity is kept close to the working leg – in sprinting, climbing, jumping. So the weight of the torso should be kept above the front leg while keeping the lower back arch of course.
• Directly down. Once you take the large step forward, stop. Don’t move forward anymore. Instead drop directly down like an elevator. If you move forward you shift the focus towards the quads (and knees- ouch!). Observe the arrows on photo A – this is the position where you stop moving forward and go directly down.
• Push through the heel. As in squats and deadlifts, to activate the posterior chain muscles, we are pushing through the heel and not through the toes. Pushing through the toes focuses the movement on the knees and quads only. It has its place when you know what you are doing but here the goal is activate the whole leg.

Barbell Lunge Video

Here’s a barbell lunge video we shot at the gym last year. Try to take a large step. Here I probably could have taken even larger steps. When in doubt, make the stride bigger.

Action Plan

• Low reps. When doing complex skill movements like this, stick to low reps – about 5 is just right. The reasoning for this is that the more reps you do, the less concentrated you can be and this can make learning the move difficult.
• Perfect form. Here are four quick points to check yourself – walk on rails, take a large step, keep the weight on the front leg and go directly up and down.
• Train often. Twice per week should do trick when trying to learn a new movement. Three times is better but not necessary.

If you focus part of your workouts on this kind of training you will experience very fat muscle growth, especially if you haven’t been training in this way before. As strength coach Charles Poliquin likes to say, the best workout is the one you haven’t been doing.

What he means is that we adapt to a certain kind of training so changing something in the workout every few weeks or months ensures continued progress.

Fast Muscle Growth with Cumulative Fatigue?

I first heard the term cumulative fatigue from my friend Rusty Moore, author of the Visual Impact Muscle Building workout. What this technique means is to gradually exhaust the muscle more and more throughout the workout by using relatively short rest periods.

Both bodybuilders and athletes use this kind of training to grow muscle fast. In fact, cumulative fatigue training was one of Vince Gironda’s (pictured below to the right) favorite techniques. He practically implemented it in almost all of the workout routines he created, including 6 sets of 6 reps, 8 sets of 8 reps and 10 sets of 10 reps – all done with relatively small rest periods.

Charles Poliquin (in the picture to the left) introduced this kind of training with what he called German volume training. This was essentially a workout of 10 sets of 10 reps of a single exercise with less than a minute of rest.

How to Train for Fast Muscle Growth

• Mind muscle connection – focus your mind on the muscle. Imagine it contracting and relaxing while you are lifting.
• Short rest periods – rest between 15 and 60 seconds. You will eventually get fitter and be able to rest less, even if 15 seconds seem too little time at first. And when you are able to rest less while lifting the same amount of weight, you’ll be bigger.
• First sets set the tone – with this kind of training the first set or two might feel too easy, but it just sets the tone for the series of sets. Think of cumulative fatigue training as one giant set done by doing a few smaller sets with very small rest periods.

The Big Picture

I just want to make this point clear, when it comes to fast muscle growth or any muscle growth, in the long run you got to get stronger. So whatever workout you are doing, if you want to get more muscle, you have to work with increasingly more challenging workouts.

Two workouts that feature a phase focused on fast muscle growth through cumulative fatigue are Visual Impact Muscle Building and Hollywood Physique.

Visual Impact is a more balanced workout focused on both size and strength gains. On the other hand, the Hollywood Physique is a program that dramatically changes your body in 13 weeks. It is for guys who are fed up by working out without seeing the results they were after and can devote a few weeks of their life to dramatically changing their body.

Not only that, the swing is one of the most effective exercises to train your posterior chain – the back of the legs. At the same time, when done with a moderately heavy weight it trains your grip. Of course if you don’t have access to a kettlebell right now you could try using a dumbbell just to feel how taxing this exercise is.

What is the Kettlebell Swing

This is a unique exercise that teaches you how to use the hip drive. This is a whole body exercise that is taxing on your grip and abs, as well as the whole posterior chain – calves, hamstrings, glutes, lower and mid back.

The main thing to remember when doing kettlebell swings is to let the bell hang in your arm. Imagine it is a pendulum. All of the force that propels is comes from the hips, not from your arm or shoulders.

An easy way to spot when somebody is doing the swing incorrectly is to observe the top position of the movement, pictured above. See whether the bottom of the kettlebell is pointing away from the athlete or towards the floor. If it points down, the gal or guy is doing it wrong – using his arms and not his hips.

How to Do the Kettlebell Swing

• Brace the abs.Your abs should be nice and tight all throughout the movement. At the top of the swing brace them even more and exhale through your teeth.
• Grip hard. Whenever you are swinging weights around you gotta grip as hard as you can. This will keep you safe and make you stronger.
• Push hips back. Feel you hips and hamstrings stretch. If you are too tight this is actually a good thin. Feel the tightness in your legs and use it to recoil back like a rubber band.
• Keep the arch in the lower back. The arch position is one of the most important things when it comes to avoiding lower back injuries. Just keep the lumber region nice and tight.
• Your arm is a pendulum. Don’t try to raise the kettlebell you’re your arm and shoulders. Let your hip drive do the work.
• Drive the hips forward. Imagine you are trying to make the kettlebell go forward. The centripetal force will do the rest and swing it up.

Kettlebell Swing Video

Here is a short video I filmed a few years back showing the kettlebell swing from a few different directions. Note how the lower back is nice and tight, how the hips go back and then forward.

Also observe the position of the bell. The bottom is pointing away from me. At the top of the swing I exhale and brace my abs more like Bruce Lee was about to punch me.

What’s Next?

Honestly, the number of workouts with the kettlebell swing is only limited by your imagination. The main thing is to practice the correct form and gradually push yourself to do more. Here are a few ideas to take you to the next level.

• 3 sets of 30 reps – this is a basic and solid routine to get you started but only once you’ve mastered proper form.
• Sets of 10 reps in a circuit you can combine the swing with other bodyweight or machine/free weight exercise. Choose 8-10 exercises that cover the whole body and do them back to back for 3 circuits with 1 minute rest in between.
• 100 reps in as little time as possible. Try to beat your time each session.
• As many reps as possible – you could go for 1, 3,5, 10 minutes, etc. Choose a time frame and make a personal best each workout.
• Enter the Kettlebell! This book is the most comprehensive book I’ve read when it comes to kettlebell training and it was the one that introduced me to the move.

Chris did it by eating skinless chicken, turkey and fish in huge quantities and lots and lots of salad and all sorts of green vegetables.

Chris Evans’ Workout for Captain America

• Chris Evans on his workout: the actor stated the 3 months of his workouts were grueling and brutal. Honestly, he’s right. Gaining muscle is simply impossible without hard work.
• Two muscle groups: Chris and his trainer would take two muscle groups such as chest and back or biceps and triceps and destroy them in the gym for about two hours. Afterwards they would cool down with some core and ab work. So much working out did not leave Chris without some injuries. But because of the movie deadline, they had to work around the sore or injured body parts and push on.
• Performance training The workout was mainly based on becoming more athletic – more upper body strength, faster sprinting, etc.
• A lean and muscular, but angular body The guys that get in this kind of shape like Chris Evans get in different kind of shape than say football players or bodybuilders. They don’t balloon to be as big as possible, but instead strategically build their bodies. Here is s great video that explains this – click here and watch the first video.

Captain America vs. James Bond

Chris’s trainer for Captain America, Simon Waterson, has become Hollywood’s go-to guy when it comes to getting actors in super hero shape. Previously he helped Daniel Craig get buff like a bull for his roles in Casino Royale, The Invasion, The Golden Compass, Defiance and Quantum of Solace and Jake Gyllenhaal for his role in Prince of Persia. Currently he is busy getting Sam Worthington in Spartan shape for Clash of the Titans 2.

In addition to that, he also trained Halle Berry for her James Bond movie role, Gerri Halliwell for her music video It’s raining men and Pierce Brosnan for The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day.

Simon’s basic philosophy is to combine weight training and cardio into one workout using circuit training around 10 basic multi joint exercises done for 10-15 reps with as little rest as possible.

Training Schedule

Chris and Simon would train six days per week with an optional workout on Sunday to hit muscles that are not trained enough or lagging. They would do 3 weight training sessions and two cardio and core sessions.

Each weight training session would begin with a plyometric bodyweight circuit to improve overall functional fitness. Then, they would focus on 2 muscle groups per day. This kind of combined training builds a very balanced physique with a combination of myofibrilar (the muscle fibers) and sarcoplasmic (the fluid in the muscles) hypertrophy.

The second video here <== just click here and scroll down to the second video. It explains these two types of muscle.

Here’s an example circuit – pull-ups, followed by squat trusts with a push up, then kettlebell swings, weighted step-ups, squat trusts again and finally suspension training.

• Monday – circuit followed by back and arms. Lots of deadlifts, shrugs, biceps curls. Chris and Simon worked up to doing weighted pull-ups for 3 sets of 10-12 reps with 15 kgs.
• Tuesday – cardio and abs. Chris and his trainer would incorporate rotational core exercise such as the high to low or low to high wood chopper.
• Wednesday – circuit plus heavy legs – lunges, squats.
• Thursday – cardio and abs.
• Friday – circuit plus chest, arms and shoulders. Simon likes to hit the chest from different angles – close grip incline presses, incline flies, incline pushups with feet elevated. Another exercise he uses is the kneeling shoulder press – this way you cannot cheat by using your legs. Chris also did weighted dips for 3 sets of 10-12 reps with 20-30kg as well as pushups with a 20kg plate on his back.
• Saturday – rest. This includes the strict nutrition rules. Simon’s clients are free to eat whatever they please from 6pm on Friday to 8am on Sunday.
• Sunday – either extra work for muscles that are not hi hard or extra posture work – rear delts, rhomboids.
• Supplementation – Simon Waterson had Chris take a simple but effective supplement combo to aid in his fast recovery. The Cap would take whey protein shakes, Omega 3,6, and 9’s as well as glutamine.

Chris Evans Before Captain America

Before getting in Nazi-butt-kicking shape as Captain America, Chris Evans was still in pretty great shape, as far as looks go. For his roles in Not Another Teen Movie and Fantastic Four, Chris worked with Hollywood trainer Steve Zim. His methods show quick results by only focusing on the visible muscles and using targeted movements with custom range of motion to target only these muscles.

Steve Zim has developed a method of specifically targeting only the intended muscles with his own custom devised exercises. With his method it is possible to have a noticeable difference in your muscular development in a matter of weeks. Here are 3 tips from Steve Zim, Chris Evans’s personal trainer on Fantastic 4 and Not Another Teen Movie:

• Stretch between sets – this way you will remain flexible and prevent injuries. Plus it’s a great way to use the idle time.
• Breathe during weight training. This may seem obvious to many ‘ but some people actually forget to breathe out on the exertion portion of the lift and breathe in when on the negative motion.
• Focus your mind on the muscle. This tip is especially important when trying to build muscles that are difficult to feel ‘ like the shoulders, the mid back and the lats.

Movies and the Hollywood Body

• Lighting – the body looks best when properly lit. One of the best sources of lighting is the sun – preferably at noon. The basic technique that photographers use is to have the light source in front of the subject, not behind him. So have in mind that every scene you see in a movie has been meticulously arranged and properly lit to look the best.
• Training on set. Actors would frequently work out all through the day and between takes when shooting the movie. Some would go for a quick pump before shooting a scene where they need to look their best.
• Peaking. You must realize that peak shape is usually not held for a long time. For example, the now famous scene of Chris exiting the apparatus in Captain America in his new buff body was a moment of physical peaking for him. Simon Waterson mentions in an interview that he planned his workout so the guy would look outstanding exactly on the day the scene was shot. I’ve read similar accounts from Gunnar Peterson, who helped Stallone with his training for the Expendables. He planned his training to peak for the shirt off scenes etc.
• The Shrink wrap effect Chris’ trainer explained that he had him look extra ripped and big for the particular day they shot the shirtless scene. Watch the third video <== here to find about thsi strategy that allows you to have your skin shrink and your muscles expand and almost stretch it out for a great effect. A really cool technique.

Getting a Chris Evans Body

For that kind of physique, characteristic of so many of the A-list celebrities, it is crucial to get lean with a low body fat percentage and also develop the arms, chest, shoulders and abs. For this kind of body I strongly recommend you get a workout partner or trainer who is already in fantastic shape (so he can show you what to do and more importantly PUSH you to train hard.

Another option is getting the Visual Impact Muscle Building workout for anybody looking to build a stunning muscular body. This workout plan will show you what you need to do in the gym. However, you still need to train hard!

However, if you do learn how to feel, contract and use the lats, you will kick ass in the gym when it comes to pull ups or chin ups. Not only that, you will also get a killer v shape back because the lats will grow nice and wide.

How to Start Using the Lats

• Practice contracting the lats. Throughout the day practice flaring out and flexing the lats (when nobody’s watching you of course). This will build a stronger connection to the muscles that you want to use in pull-ups.
• Try wide grip thumbless pull-ups. These pull-ups rely more on the lats so you’ll have no choice but to start engaging them. The thumbless grip – thumbs on top of the bar – disengage the biceps so again more lat activation.
• Lean back. When doing pull-ups or pull-downs, try leaning slightly back so you pull toward the rib cage. Focus on bringing the elbows towards the torso.
• Pull with elbows. Pull-ups, chin-ups, pull-downs and rows. These are all done with the back, bot the biceps. To feel the back working, imagining your arms as hooks and focusing on pulling just the elbows down.
• Activate the lats. This is a tip I got from the book Beyond Bodybuilding. Reach out with your arm. Have a buddy try to press your arm up while you use your lats (armpit muscles) to resist him.
• Try one arm dumbbell rows.

To properly train the back with one arm dumbbell rows, row using the lats. Begin by lifting the dumbbell with a straight arm. Imagine your arms as hooks, try to bring the elbow as close to your waist as possible.

Lat Activation Video

The above video shows how to initiate pull ups or chin ups by first packing the shoulders down towards your torso and then flexing the lats. Many advocate doing pull ups with shoulders flexed the whole time.

I prefer doing the entire movement on every rep. This way the serratus and pec minor get a great workout from bringing the shoulder down.

Action Plan

From now on whenever you are doing a pulling motion (weight moves toward you or you pull yourself toward stationary object), you want to initiate the movement with the lats. Pull your shoulder towards your body with a straight arm and then start pulling with the lats by bringing the elbow towards your chest.

VIDEO: Are You Targetting the Right Kind of Muscle?

Ultimately your strength in your chin up and pull up workouts will double or triple when you wake up the and start using the lats – those dormant super muscles.

Before going further, here’s what you will miss if you don’t read the article. You won’t find out how to activate your pecs, the chest muscle, when doing trying to build it up with chest muscle exercises. What’s worse, you might hurt your shoulders from doing one of the most famous chest builders incorrectly.

If you read on, you will discover how to build square muscular pecs like the ones of a gladiator. Your chest muscles will be muscular but not bulky as if you had man boobs. The lower and outer part of the pecs will be clearly outlined, standing out in bold relief.

What Are the Best Chest Muscle Exercises

Before we discuss the best chest muscle exercise choices, we need to examine the different muscles that make up your chest. The chest is made up of two muscles – the pectoralis major and the pectoralis minor.

The pectoralis major is a large fan shaped muscle that is attached to your chest bone (down the middle of your chest) and to your collar bone. Take a look at the diagram below and you will see its muscle fibers. The important thing to understand here is that in order to work a muscle, we need to make it contract along the length of its muscle fibers.

So because the pec major is attached to both the sternum (bone down the middle of the chest) and the collar bone (clavicle), we need two types of chest muscle exercise in order to fully develop it. I will list the best exercises for both functions of the chest later in the post.

The thing to remember is that you need an exercise that makes the muscle contract towards the center of the chest and another one that makes it contract upwards toward the collar bone.

Many people are under the false impression that the upper portion of the chest is a different muscle (the pectoralis minor). In fact, this is completely untrue. As you can see from the diagram above however, the pec minor is a thin muscle situated beneath the big pectoralis major. Its main function is to bring your shoulder and upper arm down.

Why should you bother building the pec minor? It very quickly pushes the outside of the chest out, giving you a nice angular outline.

The Best Lower Chest Muscle Exercises

• Dips. By far the best chest build for the lower fibers because it allows the greatest amount of weight to be used. Check this post for tips on adding weight to make dips harder.
• Dumbbell bench press. Build up your strength with the barbell bench press before giving these a try.
• Barbell bench press. Don’t flare out your elbows to the sides. Instead point them at a 45 degree angle towards your feet. Your shoulders will thanks you. Read this post on pushup form which also applies to the bench press.
• Cable cross over. Those are only for advanced trainees because initially you can’t really flex the pecs.
• Dumbbell Fly Same as cable cross overs – do flies after getting strong with bench presses and dips.

The Best Upper Chest Muscle Exercises

• Incline Barbell Bench Press. Just like a regular bench press, except done at an incline. Don’t lower the bar to your chest. Lower until upper arms are paralle to the ground. Don’t do less than 5-6 reps.
• Incline Dumbbell Bench Press Do these once you get stronger at incline barbell bench presses.
• Incline Dumbbell Flies Do these only after you get strong at incline dumbbell bench presses.

Action Plan

For pec minor, the best exercise is dips. It just so happens that dips also are one of the best choices for the lower fibers of the pec major. For the upper fibers your best bet is either a barbell or dumbbell incline bench press.

The Best Workout for Gladiator Pecs

The best workout I’ve found for building balanced chest muscles is Visual Impact. This is not a workout for somebody looking to get as big as a bouncer. Instead it teaches you how to get lean and muscular – like a Hollywood actor (Taylor Lautner, Daniel Craig, Hugh Jackman, etc), a surfer dude or a male model.

One thing that is often missed when it comes to recommending exercises is that everybody has a different bone and muscle/ligament structure. So the best exercise for me might not be best for you. The cool thing about this workout though is that it lets you pick out your own chest muscle exercises based on what your body responds best to.

Well, in this article I will reveal a technique I’ve been using for years to save my shoulders from excess stress when doing bench presses and dips. If you use this method, you will never hurt your shoulders with these movements and you will skyrocket your strength in the weighted dip, the bench press and other upper body pressing movements.

In the photo above Bruce Lee has been kind enough to demonstrate the lat contraction. I think the photo is from Enter the Dragon, possibly his best movie and (still) a very entertaining one at that.

What Is Lat Contraction?

So this is a method of flexing your lats – the large back muscles in your armpits, which increases your pushing strength and takes pressure of your shoulders at the same time. To do it you flare out the lats pushing them outwards and at the same time push your upper arms towards your body. Imagine having a heavy book and trying to hold it with your armpits.

This dual contraction – pushing outwards with the lats and pushing inwards with the upper arms, creates a very rigid and stale base of support. So on upper body pushing exercises such as dips, bench presses, one armed dumbbell presses (link to a great article by Rusty from Fitness Black Book) you will be able to lift much more weight.

Why does stable support give more strength? It’s like trying to shoot cannon from the ground vs. from a canoe. Force production pushes against the base of support. So the support has to withstand in order for great force to be possible.

Here’s our teaching assistant Bruce Lee helping out once more. Note his flared out lats (the wide cobra-like back muscles) and how his upper arms are pressing down. This is essentially the move.

I first learned about this technique from Pavel Tsatsouline’s book The Naked Warrior, where he was teaching using the lats to stabilize yourself when doing one armed pushups. Pavel describes this as pulling yourself towards the ground instead of trying to fight gravity on the way down in a one armed pushup.

How to Do It

• Flare the lats. Contract the armpit muscles and push them out against your rib cage.
• Push upper arms down. Press the arms hard against the contracted lats as if holding a book there and trying not to drop it.
• Keep the shoulders down. This is the easiest ad most effective tip for shoulder safety. Here’s a great post on the topic by Clint from Crude Fitness.
• Arms at 45 degrees. You simply cannot press the arms against your lats when they are out wide. Here’s a post I wrote about pushup technique explaining optimal upper arm position.

Action Plan

Here’s how to integrate this technique in your training.

• Think about proper form. Try to do pushing movements with optimal shoulder health in mind.
• Develop the lats. Obviously in order to flex the lats, you need to develop them. Work those chinups.
• Stronger and safer dips.With dips you will press your upper arms against your lats and torso and thus greatly increase safety (by limiting shoulder movement) and strength
• Safer bench pressing. This is a tricky one, but with practice you will be able to initiate the bench pressing move by contracting the lats and pressing forward with them.
• Easier one arm presses. So with one armed presses such as the military press (lifting a dumbbell overhead), the side press (lifting a dumbbell overhead and leaning sideways) and the bent press (dropping sideways and extending the arm up) lat contraction will give a stable support for more strength generation.

Note: There is a new DVD dedicated to using the lats: Lats, the Super Muscles Check it out if you are interested in increasing your strength on upper body lifts using the lats.

Below I wanted to share a simply brilliant video showing a stop motion fight between Bruce Lee and Iron Man. It has nothing to do with the post but I wanted you to see it because it’s pure genius – right up to the way Lee’s moves and mannerisms are re-created.

So the question is: why should you bother with the muscle up? Well, it is a complete upper body in itself – the only thing you need is a bar. Getting good at the muscle up will give you an awesome physique. I am convinced that the men with the best upper bodies are the ones that are freaky strong at bar or gymnastic type training.

Besides, mastering this bad boy is plain old fun. Fact is, very few people who workout will come close to doing the muscle up. It’s a shame really.

So What Exactly is the Muscle-Up

Well this is a complex move where you pull yourself up from a hanging position. But instead of pulling to your chin, throat or upper chest, you actually pull as low as possible and flick your arms at the top of the move as you end up in the low position of dip. Then you pushup.

Easier said than done. Most people will attempt a pull-up and then try to transition on top of the move. That’s NOT how it’s done.

The secret of muscle-up is that there is also a horizontal movement in addition to the vertical movement. Even the strongest guys use at least some kind of horizontal movement.So the muscle-up really consists of three parts.

1. Basic pull-up strength . First you need a basic pull-up strength level from either doing weighted pull-ups or bodyweight ones. Either way you need roughly 15 pullups to start aiming for a muscle up.
2. Master the swing. This is the tricky part. With the muscle up you hang from a bar and let your body swing freely forward. At the top of the swing when your body is as far away from the bar as possible, you vigorously pull up to your chest.
3. Explode to the sternum. This is the key to the move. In fact you could master the muscle up just by either getting freaky strong at weighted pull-ups or getting real good – meaning doing 10+ reps, on the sternum pull-up.

Muscle Up-Transition

Most people quote the muscle-up transition as their biggest difficulty in doing muscle ups. But the muscle-up transition is actually a misnomer. You cannot do a pull-up and somehow transition to a dip at the top. When you reach the top of a pull-up, it is already too late to do a muscle-up. It is a fundamentally different, more complex move:

• Swing. So the basis of the muscle up is the swinging of the body from behind to in front of the bar. This is what makes the muscle up so elusive as it is a complex, 3D move, similar to the Olympic weightlifting moves, but in reverse.
• Pull-up. Thus you grab the bar from behind it or jump up. You then let your body swing freely and when it is at the farthest/highest point you pull-up as explosively as you can to your chest.
• Kip. From the explosiveness of the pull-up, your body will naturally integrate your lower body. This is called a kip from some coaches. So the idea is that your body will bend at the hips. Instead of hanging straight down your legs will swing up forward. The stronger you are, the less you will swing your legs up. Note however that even super strong athletes move at least somewhat the legs. To explain why lifting the legs up helps you, try visualize running up stairs. When you swing your arms up while climbing, the momentum helps you up. Same thing here, except with the legs.
• Transition. So the better you are at pull-ups, the less of an actual transition there will be. Master the sternum pull-up to pull as low on your chest as possible. But for starters, after the vigorous pull, you flick your arms and end up on top of the bar.
• Dip. Basic dipping strength, from training the dip on the parallel bars, will be sufficient to pushup in the final phase. Note that a single dip on top of a bar is way harder than one on the dip station.
• Lose the excess weight. I thing this one is obvious, but it bears repeating. Find a way to eat less so you don’t have excess fat on you. Even 2lbs extra make it significantly harder to do your first muscle up. For me personally Eat Stop Eat is the easiest diet plan that allows me to control my weight.

Muscle-up Training Video

Here is a video we shot recently showing the muscle up and some tips. I had to do it on a soccer goal cause the pull-up bar was drowned by a recent rain storm. This made it more challenging, but the cool thing is that you get to see the exaggerated swing forward and the timing.

Your First Muscle-Up Workout

• Pull-up strength foundation. However you choose to form your workout, you need to train the pull-up hard and get to 15+ pull-ups. Again, the easiest way is with weighted pull-ups.
• Sternum pull-ups. So once you master the pull-up, focus on getting really good at the sternum pull-up. This means exploding to your chest, not just your chin. The way to do it is to pull your elbows back when doing pull-ups.
• Sequential pull-ups. This pull-up variation will help with the transition/flicking of the arms.
• Swinging and timing. The trick here is to master the timing – when to pull-up: at the top of the swing.
• Volume is king. As with all the other complex moves – the more you practice, the better. Stay away from injuries by resting at least one day per week and maybe completely resting for a week every few weeks.
• Don’t train to failure! Failure training fries your CNS, the central nervous system. As a result you are forced to prematurely end your workout. Instead, avoid forced reps and do more total reps per session

Other Muscle-up Training Resources

• Bar-Barians – Ninja Masters of the Pull Up Bar! Rusty Moore’s post about the Bar-Barians: a team of bodyweight training specialists from New York. Great motivation and strength.
• Muscle-up tutorial Video. This video does a great job at explaining the swing forward and the timing – pull-up explosively at the top of the swing.
• Another Muscle Up Tutorial Video. This one is valuable because it shows another way to progress to the muscle-up.

Finally, here’s another video I find online. This one is really comprehensive and also does a great job of explaining the role of the kick with your legs.

There are several reasons why I’m writing a tutorial for this exercise. The cool thing about the sequential muscle-up is that it builds confidence quickly – a thing that is needed when trying to achieve goals that seem “impossible,” such as the real muscle-up. The move also builds strength needed for the transition phase in the real exercise.

Speaking of sequences, I chose this completely unrelated photo of a beautiful girl doing the moonwalk on a sandy hill at the beach. I’ve been into haiku lately and found this Basho haiku poem to fit quite nicely with the photo.

I recently finished the last level of my German language classes and was browsing in the German section of a bookstore when I stumbled on this book of haiku poetry translated in German. I was shocked that the translations were so good. Anyway – back to the sequential muscle-up.

So What Exactly is the Sequential Muscle-up

• Muscle-up variation. Although not a true muscle-up, this exercise is as close as it gets.
• No kipping. No leg action is used here. This develops more upper body strength.
• No swing. Unless you are super strong, the real muscle-up is done with a swing in which you pull yourself up when your body is behind and not below the bar.
• One arm at a time. Here you pull yourself up, and transition to the top of the bar one arm at a time. Hence the name sequential – which I made up by the way.

Sequential Muscle-up Video

Here is a video we shot of the sequential muscle-up. You can clearly follow the three major phases: 1. pull-up, 2. shift of the weight and rotation of the free arm, another shift of the weight with rotation of the first arm.

Note: it is essential to train both sides in this movement – although the video doesn’t show this. As soon as you are able to do the move with the weaker arm (most people have a weaker arm), start practicing it this way.

How to Do the Sequential Muscle-up

• Pull-up. The first part of the move is your basic pull-up
• Pull hard with one arm. Next you want to flex hard one of your arms while at the top of the pull-up. Shift your weight towards this arm so that the other one is free.
• Rotate the other. Now you simply rotate the other arm on top of the bar and push hard.
• Transfer weight. The next step is to shift your weight towards the arm that is already on top of the bar.
• Rotate first arm. Finally bring this arm on top of the bar too.
• Push up. Finish the move by pushing up as if finishing a parallel bar dip.

How to Train

• Daily volume. Do single repetitions and strive to do more each time your train. Train often – at least 2-3x per week. More is better.
• Switch sides. This is crucial. You will likely first master the move with one of your arms – the stronger one. As soon as possible start practicing with the weaker side. Always do equal number of repetitions and alternate the sides.
• Focus on speed. You will soon find yourself getting better and better. Strive to increase the speed. At this point the sequential muscle-up will be almost like a real muscle-up, because you will be doing it so fast.

Note: The final article in this series will teach the real muscle-up.
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Prior to that, I had read an article by Charles Poliquin mentioning this exercise. Poliquin himself was inspired by the great Vince Gironda if I recall correctly. However I never found a comprehensive guide on doing the sternum pull-up, much less on using it to work towards muscle-ups. So this article is a first in a series that will help you do your first muscle-up.

The gorgeous girl on the photo above does a pretty decent job of showing where you should touch the bar when doing sternum pull-ups. Anywhere lower than her hippy peace sign necklace is fine. The lower, the better (but also the harder). And, the lower you go, the more you need to lean back and make your body parallel to the ground.

What is the Sternum Pull-up

The sternum pull-up is simply a pull-up variation in which you need to touch the bar to your chest. The cool thing about this kind of pull-up is that it will teach and strengthen the groove that will eventually lead to muscle-up mastery.

Sternum Pull-up Video

Below you can watch a video I shot demonstrating the basic sternum pull-up. Again, the three keys to the move are using your back, exploding and pulling the elbows back once the upper arms reach parallel.

Here is a simple progression towards getting good with the sternum pull-ups. Remember to watch your form. With the gymnastic type of movements it is quality that counts more than quantity.

How to do Sternum Pull-ups

• Start with the lat pull down. The lat pull down machine is your first stop if you can’t do pull-ups.The reason for this recommendation is that this is the only machine that will teach you the correct full range form for pull-ups and, eventually, sternum pull-ups
• Master the pull-up first. The best thing you can do is master the basic pull-up: from dead hang until your chin is over the bar. Here it is essential that you learn to engage and use your back – the lats (the muscles of your armpits that create a v-shaped torso).
• Hands on top. For the purpose of working towards muscle-ups, we want the hands to be on top of the bar. Other variations have their merit, but this one – hands on top (pronated grip) – is the one to choose for now.
• Learn to explode. The biggest obstacle in achieving the muscle-up is lack of speed. Sternum pull-ups are done as fast as possible. Contract the back lightning fast and pull yourself up
• Elbows back. Once your upper arms pass parallel, you need to engage another muscle group – the mid back and rear delts, and pull back instead of simply down.
• Chest to bar. Finally you want to hit or touch the bar to the chest: the lower the better.

I am shooting these pics and videos in the backyard of a high school near the gym. I go there after I get off work and surprisingly the kids from the neighborhood have no interest whatsoever of using the free pull-up bar. A pity.

By the way – although the photos look sort of ‘ghetto,’ this neighborhood is considered a very nice one. In fact there are ‘commercial’ sponsored graffiti on the facade of the school.

Sternum Pull-ups vs. Muscle-ups

Although these moves are similar there are two major differences between these exercises. Both of these share a similar groove. The muscle up however is finished with a lean forward and a rotation of the arms around the bar so that you end up in the lower portion of a dip position on top of the bar.

The other difference is that while the sternum pull-up can be done with relatively no momentum, few people posses the strength to do muscle-ups with no horizontal momentum. What this means is that the bottom of the movement there is a forward swing of the body.

This creates a swing backwards that, when coupled with a vigorous pull, will allow you to pull-up behind the bar as opposed to below it. Above is a photo of Marcus (link to the video) from Bondi beach, Australia setting a record in muscle-ups and showing the forward swing of the body. If you simply pull up from a dead hang, you will only hit the your chest and won’t be able to transition on top of the bar.

Advanced Sternum Pull-ups

Here you can see Mohamed Makkawy performing an advanced version of the sternum pull-up, where he is leaning way back so the move becomes a sort of a row at the end. The photo is from Vince Gironda’s book Unleashing the Wild Physique, a treasure chest of advanced training principles.

Makkawy is gifted with a naturally v-shaped body. Notice the athletic physique, a thing that is missing from the current sport of bodybuilding. Here is an example (video) of a current up and coming bodybuilding super champ. Notice the huge stomach (caused by excessive growth hormone usage resulting in enlargement of the internal organs). No comment.

Action Plan

• Train often. The more often you can train a complex move like this, the better.
• Train fresh. Fatigue and soreness will hinder your explosiveness. Don’t do force reps or reps to failure.
• Add volume. Volume means more practice.
• 3-5 reps, 8-10 sets. This is a great protocol for training explosive moves like the sternum pull-up or explosive push-ups
• Complex training. Combine with heavy weighted pull-ups. Simply do your weighted pull-up training and then do the explosive sternum pull-ups. Watch as those bad boys feel super light after the heavy sets.

Note: the next article will teach you a special exercise that will bring strength and train the rotational part of the muscle up.

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