HAVE YOU ABANDONED THE PUSH-UP?
DO YOU SQUAT LOW ENOUGH?
HOW MUCH CAN YOU CHIN?
CAN YOU ROW YOUR OWN BODY WEIGHT
10 TIMES?

DO YOU SQUAT LOW ENOUGH?

A proper parallel squat means lowering your body until the tops of your thighs, not the bottoms, are at least parallel to the floor. This detail typically amounts to at least a five-centimetre difference: small, you might think, but when it comes to building muscle fast, every centimetre counts. That's because the greater your range of motion, the more muscle fibres you'll activate, and the bigger you'll grow. A shallow squat's easier, but then so is sitting in Macca's stuffing a Big Mac down your throat.

Hard muscle requires hard work. And don't think you can rely on a mirror to keep you honest; it only leaves room for misinterpretation. Instead, tightly control your depth by squatting with a box or a large medicine ball under you. If you're not touching your chosen object on every repetition, then you're not squatting deep enough.

How to do it Stand with your heels just in front of a 30cm-high medicine ball or anything else sturdy of similar height that you can find. Initiate the movement by pushing your hips back. Bend your hips and knees to lower your body until your bum lightly touches the top of the ball - no sitting - then press back up to the starting position.

CAN YOU ROW YOUR OWN BODY WEIGHT 10 TIMES?

"If you're not rowing, you're not growing." Not a dynamite catchphrase, granted, but a solid gym maxim. Besides being a great muscle-builder, the inverted row is invaluable in strengthening your rear shoulders and upper back. These often neglected muscles directly oppose the muscles used in the bench press, and working them prevents slumped posture. If you bench press far more than you row, the muscles on the front of your upper body will overpower the weaker ones on the back. If you can't do 10 reps, you have an imbalance. The fix? Two sets of the inverted row for every set of bench presses you do.


How to do it At a Smith machine, grab the bar with an overhand grip and place your heels on the floor, legs straight. Pull your chest up to touch the bar, pause, then lower yourself until your arms are straight.

HAVE YOU ABANDONED THE PUSH-UP?

Besides working your pecs and triceps, push-ups engage your core, your lats and just about every other muscle in your upper body. That makes it one of the most useful and efficient movements in any man's exercise arsenal. If you think you're too strong for it, take this challenge: assume a push-up position, but place your feet on a bench or high step. Then have a partner place a 12-kilogram weight plate between your shoulderblades. Aim for 20 repetitions with perfect form. Until you can pass this test without breaking sweat, there's no need to bother with the bench press.


How to do it Keep your body rigid, in a straight line from your ankles to your head. Lower it as a single unit until your nose touches the floor, then push back up until your arms are completely straight. To progress to a more challenging variation, try it with your hands on a balance ball (dome-side down). This adds an element of instability, forcing the muscles in your core and your shoulders to work even harder.

HOW MUCH CAN YOU CHIN?

That head's not a mistake. You probably gauge chin-ups by how many repetitions you can complete, not the amount of weight you can lift.

But recent research by Edith Cowan University in Western Australia found that you should be able to do a chin-up with as much weight as you can bench press. What's more, the study suggested that if you can bench 15 per cent more than you can chin, your risk of shoulder injuries jumps significantly. To see how you measure up, do as many chin-ups as you can just using your own bodyweight, then compare that with the number of reps you can bench press using the same weight. So, if you weigh 75kg and can manage five chin-ups, your strength balance is ideal if you can do, at most, five repetitions of the bench press with 75kg. If you can pump 10 repetitions with that weight, you're a leading candidate for serious shoulder trouble.

How to do it Grab a chin-up bar with an underhand grip, hands shoulder-width apart. Hang with your arms straight and cross your ankles for stability. Pull your body up until your chin clears the bar, then lower.