Build muscles from all angles

Varying your approach leads to faster gains in this workout from strength and conditioning specialist Alwyn Cosgrove

In more than 15 years as a strength coach, I’ve trained hundreds of elite athletes. Before that, I competed at the world-class level in taekwondo. I’ve seen my share of amazing feats of strength. But the one I remember most was performed by a removalist. He could hold himself from a lamppost like a flag, with his body horizontal and rigid, and he’d never worked out in a gym.

The removalist’s muscles were in perfect balance because he had to lift weight in every conceivable direction. As a result, he had no weak links – and freak-show strength.

Of course, you don’t have to move furniture for a living to build the body you want. This guide will show you a new approach to muscle building. The upshot: you’ll blast through longtime plateaus and achieve gains in muscle and strength like you’ve never seen before.

In this article, I’ll reveal the principles of building a balanced body. Then, check out A Better Way to Bigger Biceps, where you’ll find all of those principles in one cutting-edge workout.

I call it the 3-D Workout: it strengthens every muscle in your body from every direction.

The Secret to a Balanced Body

We live in a three-dimensional world. The trouble is, unlike the guy who moves furniture for a living, our workouts are often one-dimensional. In other words, most men work their muscles in only a single direction – forward and back, for instance.

Take the classic sit-up. It trains your core – the muscles that protect your spine – to be stronger as you raise your torso off the floor. But your core needs to be equally strong when you bend backwards and from side to side, and when you twist. If it’s not, those imbalances will limit your muscle-building potential.

Here’s why: if a muscle is taxed regularly by, say, having to perform a challenging exercise, its fibres grow larger and stronger. Physiologically, this happens in order to make the task easier, which reduces stress on your body. Makes sense, right? But suppose the muscles that surround a joint become unbalanced, so that one becomes stronger than another. This makes the joint – whether it’s your spine, shoulder or hip – less stable, which can lead to injury. When that happens, your body may shut down the growth of the stronger muscle to prevent the imbalance from worsening.

Chances are, your gains in strength may have already stalled to some extent because of this built-in protective mechanism. So how do you turn off this safety feature in order to switch muscle growth back on? Simple: just follow these three principles.

Principle 1: strengthen your body – in every direction
This doesn’t mean you need to do dozens of exercises that have you bending and twisting at every angle. No, what you really want is to train your core, shoulders and hips to stay stable no matter what position you’re in. Think of this in terms of the removalist: his body remained rigid while suspended horizontally from the lamppost, despite the force of gravity pulling him down.

While that seems incredible, you’ve already trained your body to do this when you’re standing. That’s why you can walk erect instead of having to crawl on all fours like a baby.

Your strategy is to perform the classic exercises you’re used to, but to change the position of the weight in relation to your body. Do lunges and squats while holding the dumbbells above your head, for example, and lift one dumbbell at a time when you’re doing the bench press and shoulder press. This shifts your centre of gravity, forcing the muscles of your core, shoulders and hips to work harder to keep you from falling over (or off the bench). The end result: you’re training your muscles to be strong from every direction.

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Principle 2: build your upper back

Here’s a quiz: which exercise can you handle the most total weight on?
A. Shrugs
B. Barbell curls
C. Dumbbell front raises

If you’re like most men, you probably answered A, B and C, in order. While these exercises target different muscle groups, the variation in weight you can use is largely due to the location of the load. For example, in a shrug, the weight is right next to your body; in a curl, it’s a forearm’s length away.

Why does this matter? Basic physics. The farther the weight is from your body, the more effort it takes to lift and the more stress is applied to the muscles of your upper back. (Feel for yourself: hold a 10-kilogram weight plate with both hands next to your chest, and then push it away by straightening your arms.) Your upper-back muscles help stabilise and protect the joints of your shoulders and spine. Once a weight is too heavy for them, you’re putting your joints at risk.

Now let’s apply this to your workout. Suppose you perform barbell curls but you haven’t been able to move beyond a certain weight no matter how hard you’ve worked at them. Most men would just assume that their biceps strength had peaked. After all, the barbell curl is a biceps exercise.

MORE: 4 easy steps to get back on the workout wagon

Trouble is, the real problem is almost always a weak upper back. Shore up the muscles there (with exercises like the YTWLI raises) and you’ll eventually be able to curl more weight. I’ve found that strengthening your upper back will make you stronger in almost every upper-body lift. This is perhaps the best-kept secret in muscle building.

Principle 3: stop cheating your muscles
There’s one mistake I see over and over in the gym: it seems that for every five kilograms a man adds to a particular exercise, he reduces the movement’s range of motion – typically by about 10 per cent.

The squat is a prime example. In order to feel like he’s becoming stronger, a man will often add weight to the bar before his muscles are ready for the challenge. (Sound familiar?) Then, instead of lowering his body until his thighs are at least parallel to the floor, he’ll stop a few centimetres short. So he’s given himself a false sense of progress while reducing the work that his muscles have to do from start to finish.

There’s an even bigger problem with this scenario: his muscles can’t reach their full potential. That’s because there will always be a weak link in the part of the movement he’s skipping. Your best approach is to use a complete range of motion, even if it means lifting a lighter load.

You may have to swallow your pride, or lift without your buddies looking on. But think about it: if you have to use less weight, it’s because you’re working your muscles through the range of motion in which they’re weakest. And as we’ve already established, eliminating your weak spots is the key to building your new body in a new way.

WORTH ITS WEIGHT

A weighted vest can make any workout more effective. The Hyper Vest, which is about to launch in Australia, is a good choice, because the zipper and cords cinch it snug around your body. Not only does it make push-ups, chin-ups and lunges more challenging, but a snug fit means you can wear it while doing sports training. You’ll burn more kilojoules while you have it on, and be more explosive once you take it off. It comes in seven sizes. Wear this vest for an extra boost to your cardio or weight workouts.

Visit hyperwear.com for more information.

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