If you want to get 6 pack abs then there are some things you’re going to want to make sure you get right. In this video, I’m revealing my greatest tips for getting 6 pack abs fast. As you would expect, these will be a mix of nutrition and workout tips for abs. You simply cannot get a ripped six pack without paying attention to both sides of the equation.With that said, we start right off ironically in the bathroom for a nutrition tip. That’s right, you want to start where you day starts with rehydration. Likely you have not had any water since before you went to bed. This can leave you dehydrated. The best thing you can do for your body is drink 16-20 ounces of water upon waking before doing anything else, simply to try and get ahead of the deficit. Whether you are trying to increase your metabolism or improve the quality of your ab workouts, you need to have plenty of water to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of each.Speaking of what to do first, the next tip for getting abs has to do with the sequence of something else - your ab workouts. It’s less important which ab exercises you choose as it is which order you perform them in. Be sure to perform lower ab movements (ones that involve isolated movement of the legs) first in your training and save the top down movements for last. In the name of exercise efficiency, this order will save you from attempting your hardest ab exercises when you are least capable of performing them well.When it comes to eating, remember this nutrition tip and you will be way ahead of the game when it comes to achieving your fat loss goals and you won’t even have to count a single calorie in the process. Pretend your plate is a clock and make an imaginary line for 9 o’clock and nine twenty. Fill the largest portion of the plate with fibrous carbs. If you’re looking for a resource for the best choices be sure to visit http://athleanx.com/carbs. Fill the second largest portion with protein. Fill the remaining portion with starchy carbs and top with a small amount of incidental fat. Keep the portions low without heaping and you will find this simple strategy is something you can use anywhere.When it comes to your ab workouts, be sure to not focus on counting reps but rather making your reps count. I like to say, it’s better to count meaningful contractions and not reps. If you do a rep that you speed through and don’t really feel it in the muscles you’re trying to work, then don’t count it. When you trade in quality for quantity, your chances of getting a carved out six pack are dramatically increased.When it comes to specific techniques that you can apply to your ab exercises for a 6 pack be sure to do the following. On all lower ab exercises, focus on lifting the pelvis not the legs. Also, when able, be sure to squeeze your knees together to activate the adductors which provides stability to the pelvis from below and gives you a better engagement of the lower abs.For the upper abs, pretend there is a line just at the bottom of your ribcage. From here, try and fold your body upon that line. Focusing on lifting the shoulder blades off the ground rather than pulling on your neck will make this easier to make sure you get right.In the kitchen, there are a few things you can add to your daily diet that alone won’t make much of an impact but together can have a significant one. Here I like to recommend including green tea (either as a supplement or something you drink), cinnamon (I like to include the Ceylon version in my oatmeal every morning) and red pepper flakes (providing capsaicin to assist in fat loss efforts). All of these are naturally included in my meals and done so consistently.Breathing is another thing you want to make sure you get right when doing you

If you have a pair of dumbbells then you can do this total body dumbbell workout. From beginner to advanced, it doesn’t matter what level of fitness you have you will have a home workout option to help you build muscle and get in shape quickly. The key to this dumbbell workout is that it trades in workout length for intensity. You won’t have to work out for more than 20 minutes to get good results from this circuit.To start, pick a single set of dumbbells that you will use for the duration of this workout. Beginners should use somewhere around 10 pound dumbbells. Intermediate lifters can use dumbbells that weigh close to 30 pounds (give or take a few pounds in either direction). The most advanced will likely use a set of dumbbells that weigh around 50 pounds.The entire workout is broken down into 4 rounds. Each round consists of two home dumbbell exercises with the first always being a variation of the renegade row. The goal is to complete 5 reps on each arm of the row, either staying in one place if you are a beginner or limited on home workout space or by traveling as you perform them as shown.Once you complete those you then have to stand up and perform your exercise for 40 seconds. If you need to rest at all, do so in rest pause fashion keeping it as brief as possible. Once the 40 seconds are done you walk back to the starting spot and rest 20 seconds before proceeding into the next exercise in the circuit workout. No rest is taken between rounds in this circuit. After the entire circuit is performed, take a 2 minute rest and aim to complete the entire full body dumbbell workout a total of 3 times.The workout is broken down round by round as follows.Round 1:Renegade Row March x 5 each armDumbbell Thrusters x 40 seconds / Rest 20 secondsRound 2:Renegade Row March x 5 each armDB Sprinter Lunges x 40 seconds / Rest 20 secondsRound 3: Renegade Row March x 5 each armClose Grip Squeeze Ups x 40 seconds / Rest 20 secondsRound 4:Renegade Row March x 5 each armDumbbell High Pulls from Floor x 40 seconds / Rest 20 secondsIf you can complete this circuit workout with ease, then consider either performing another entire circuit or just increasing the weight of the dumbbells that you’re using. The goal is not to simply get a sweat up by doing this. You want to feel as if you worked out and that your muscles are fatigued when finished. This is not simply a cardiovascular workout.As for the muscles that you are hitting with this home dumbbell workout, there are many. The thruster is hitting your shoulders, legs, triceps and upper chest. The sprinter lunges are best at recruiting the muscles of the posterior chain like the hamstrings and glutes. The close grip squeeze ups are an intense pushup variation that will really light up the pecs while making the triceps do a lot of work. Finally, the high pulls will hit the traps, shoulders and muscles of the upper back not to mention the quads. The staple exercise of the renegade row is great at hitting the lats and mid-scap muscles while placing a heavy emphasis on the core and biceps.If you give this a try, please be sure to let me know how you liked it in the comments below.The key to building muscle at home with dumbbells is to know the right exercises to perform. This total body workout is going to allow you to hit every muscle in your legs, back, chest, shoulders, arms and core with just 5 carefully selected dumbbell exercises. It's time to start building muscle at home without having to spend hours trying to do it.If you are looking for a complete program to give you every home workout you need to do without even requiring a set of dumbbells to perfor

The best dumbbell biceps exercises are the ones that are going to help you to build big arms the fastest. In this video, I’m going to show you dumbbell exercises for biceps that will target the long head, short head, brachialis and brachioradialis muscles. While it is impossible to isolate any one of the biceps heads from the other, it is possible to influence the activation of each head by selecting bicep exercises that do a better job at this.It starts with the biceps long head. With an attachment in the shoulder joint above the glenoid, this biceps muscle head gets its name because of the longer travel of the tendon. Anatomically, this is the area of the bicep that sits more to the outside of the arm. If you were to flex your arm and make a muscle, this would be the part that can be seen from behind as if in a back double biceps pose.It is the long head that is also most responsible for the peak. If you find that you don’t have enough height on your arms and are looking for ways to get bigger biceps peaks then this is the area you’d want to focus on. The best dumbbell bicep exercises for getting the job done here are as follows:Long Head1. Drag Curls2. Incline DB Curls3. Row Curls4. Waiter’s CurlsThe key to each of these movements is that they all do one of two things. First, they keep the elbow back behind the body into extension. This places a greater stretch on the long head and therefore allows it to be selectively more highly recruited and helps to increase activation of the area. The other element is that it places the outside of the arm in a more visible position if you were looking into a mirror when you did the biceps exercise.When it comes to biceps workouts, the thing you want to remember is that what you see is what you are training. If you see more of the outside of the arm because your arm is turned inward, then you are going to be working more of the long head of the biceps. Vice versa, if your arm is turned out and you see more of the inner portion of your biceps then you are training the short head.Speaking of the short head of the bicep muscle, here are the exercises that are most effective at hitting this area:Short Head5. Offset DB Curl6. Spider Curls7. Preacher Curls 8. Seated DB Curl Plus9. No Money CurlsAll of these have the common trait of placing the arm in a position further out in front of the body. They also all do a great job of allowing for a complete biceps contraction by resisting elbow flexion, forearm supination and shoulder flexion. My favorite of these dumbbell biceps exercises is the no money curl. You can clearly see the biceps peaks and strong contraction at the top of every rep and it also helps to improve posture.Not falling into either of these categories, but rather having a miscellaneous group of their own, there are three biceps exercises that manipulate momentum to help you get bigger arms fast.Misc10. DB Chin / Eccentric Chin11. DB Cheat Curl (Eccentric Focus)12. DB Strict CurlAnd finally, back to the muscle groupings to make sure you leave no area of your arms untrained, we have the brachialis exercises.Brachialis13. Cross Body Hammer Curls14. Robot CurlsThese help to build wider biceps by developing the muscle underneath the biceps and providing more girth to the upper arm. Remember to minimize the contribution of the biceps when trying to build a bigger brachialis and you will start filling those shirt sleeves before you know it.Finally, the forearm muscle that also gets looked at and must be trained for bigger arms is the brachioradialis. This is the best exe

Want to start doing your first set of pull ups in just 22 days? Well, if you watch this video and perform the workouts as written, you’ll be doing more pull ups in no time. This 22 day 0 to 5 workout for more pull-ups builds off of the tremendous success of our 22 day push up workout. The key to the timeline is that this workout progresses you through various exercises while demanding that you increase pull ups along the way. It consists of three weeks of testing and non-testing days that will quickly build up your back, grip and arms while helping you develop the strength to do your first set of pull ups. You won't be asking how to do a pull-up anymore after following these tips.The way these workouts are structured is by first establishing your max on an assistance exercise, the inverted row to failure in a single set. From here, you rest two minutes and attempt to perform a dead arm hang from a pull-up bar for as long as you possibly can.Day 1 starts with a test day. Complete a single set of max inverted rows to failure in good form. Rest 2 minutes and then complete a set of dead arm hangs for as long as you can hold. Take this max number of rows number as this will be used on subsequent non-testing days to be sure you are gauging your pullup strength progress the right way.On Day 2, we start a series of non-testing days. In these workouts, the goal is to perform a specific variation for the same number of reps that you did on your most recent testing day. You are allowed to rest/pause when you fatigue and you are advised to stop a few reps short of total muscle failure. This is to accommodate for the fact that you will be doing a lot of volume over the next few weeks.The second half of the non-test day workouts require that you go back to performing inverted rows, except this time you have to complete your maximum plus 40 percent (on the first non-test day) 50 percent (on the second non-test day) and 60 percent (on the third and final non-test day in a block). Again here, you do not have to perform these unbroken. You simply have to get them done, stopping 2-3 reps shy of failure and using rest/pause.The blocks continue to progress and advance with each new testing day. Be sure to re-test your maximum number at the start of each new block since you will likely be increasing your overall strength meaning that your number is going to increase. Each block is based on the number of max inverted rows that you are able to achieve on the test day that precedes that block.We continue in this fashion until we reach day 21 of the 22 day workout. Here, you are to complete one of two tests. Refer to the video for the specifics on how to compete the day 21 test. On day 22 we come back again only this time we’re testing our pull ups! This is where the hard work starts to pay off and you should start doing your first set of full pull ups! Pullups are one of the best bodyweight back exercises you can do. The thing about them is that they can be quite discouraging when you don't have the strength to perform at least one rep. It isn't helpful to keep struggling to try and do pullups at home without a plan. Now, with this 22 day pullup workout, you have a step by step progression for getting not only your first rep of pullups but to get many more after that. You won't have to ask yourself ever again how to increase pullups if you follow this workout as instructed.It is not uncommon for those that follow the plan laid out here to go from 0 pullups to at least 3 and even 5 in just three weeks. Give this plan your all and you will be surprised at how easy pullups will become for you.This 3 week workout will progressively overload your back, introduce you to exercise variations that will build not just y

If you want to get lower abs fast you are going to need to do a couple of things that are especially important. First, you will need to get your nutrition cleaned up. Due to the fact that most men and many women tend to store fat in their lower abdomen it is often the last to come off and therefore requires a higher dedication to eating right to get rid of it. Second, many people don’t train their lower abs correctly or simply don’t have the strength to do lower ab workouts right.While it is anatomically impossible to isolate the lower abs from the upper abs and get them to contract independent of the other, it is possible to influence the fiber activation of one area over the other. This is due to the fact that the different areas of the abdominals have different nerve innervation and that there is evidence to support that movements the are initiated with the pelvis moving towards the shoulders can recruit better fiber activation of the lower abdominal region.That said, there is a big downside to lower ab, bottom up exercises. The fact that these moves require that you lift the weight of your legs makes them instantly more challenging and demanding than top down shoulder to pelvis ab exercises. What winds up happening is those whose lower abs aren’t strong enough wind up overtaxing their hip flexors and not getting enough work for their abs.This lower ab workout solves this problem.By incorporating hip flexor relief exercises in between the classic exercises for lower abs that involve lifting the legs, one is able to tolerate the moves better and get through the whole ab workout. In the long run, this allows you to build up the strength of your abs and get better at the workout. There are three levels of ability provided in this lower abs workout.Beginners perform the hip flexor dominant ab exercises for 15 seconds and immediately follow this with a 15 second rest before moving onto the next movement.Intermediates perform the exercises for 20 seconds and immediately follow this with a 10 second rest before moving onto the next lower ab exercise.Advanced perform the ab exercises for 25 seconds and take just 5 seconds rest before proceeding to the next exercise in the ab workout.That said, when it comes to the hip flexor relief exercises, all performers of the workout regardless of their ability level are doing to perform the exercises for 25 seconds with 5 seconds rest due to the fact that the weight of the legs has been taken out of the equation.When the 3 minute lower ab workout is complete, take a one minute rest and then get back in there again and repeat for a second round. In total, this workout will target your lower abs better and do the job fast. You can complete this ab workout in just 7 minutes. It is recommended that you do some type of ab training at least 4-5 times per week. That said, you can train your abs daily and not have to worry about overtraining provided you are following a brief but focused ab workout like this.The specific workout for lower abs looks like this:LOWER AB MOVES1A. Figure 8’s2A. Bicycle V-Ups (Hand Spotted for Beginners)3A. 3-Way Seated Ab TucksHIP FLEXOR RELIEF EXERCISES1B. Lower Ab Swipes2B. Heaven Presses3B. KTE CrunchesComplete all reps without resting during your time (determined by your ability level above). Alternate between A and B exercises until all 6 are completed.If you’re looking for a complete lower ab workout program that will get you ripped six pack abs and includes a daily meal plan for losing body fat fast, be sure to check out the Core4 Abs program at athleanx.com and start training your abs with a purpose. If you w

Do you have bad posture and wish you could do something to fix it? Then this is an important video to help guide you through the minefield of posture fixes that don’t actually help you to fix anything. If you have rounded shoulders, a forward head or even a slumped posture due to a pelvic tilt, then you will want to be aware that reaching for the wrong devices to help fix these conditions is going to leave you with the same problems and with less money in your pocket. The important thing to realize is that you didn’t achieve this bad posture of yours in 5 minutes. It likely took you years of sitting in the wrong position or skipping workouts to strengthen the muscles of your back. Doing something that takes just minutes one time will not do anything to correct your posture long term.That said, it doesn’t stop many people from reaching for the devices and gimmicks that don’t actually correct the slumped posture.The first of these is the physioball. Look, I believe that this can be a valuable piece of workout equipment if used properly. When used as a posture improver by sitting on it rather than a chair, you are actually inviting more instability and postural issues into your life. The lack of back support that you get from switching to a ball over a chair is something that becomes more dangerous when the inevitable fatigue of the back muscles comes in that you’re trying to improve by ditching the seat.The ball, while allowing you to roll your pelvis into the proper position to sit upright, doesn’t do anything to keep you there. Realizing that people that make this switch are trying to improve a weak posture in the first place doesn’t give you much confidence that you’ll be able to maintain it for more than the 45 seconds it will likely take for these muscles to fatigue. Back braces are a popular go-to option for correcting posture these days as well. You’ll see ads pop up everywhere all over social media trying to get you to think that simply wearing a device that keeps you locked into the proper posture will somehow train your muscles to be able to hold this position as soon as you take the contraption off. Not so. Don’t invest in gimmicks, instead invest in yourself. Take the time to strengthen your back using the exercises that will help you to fix this long term. This posture correction video will help you to do this permanently. Be sure to check it out.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-7ZWPCWv0UStanding desks are another thing that have become very popular of late. Unfortunately, while standing may seem preferable to sitting for long periods of time, it doesn’t do anything to mitigate the fact that you can assume some pretty poor postures in standing as well. Crossing the feet and dropping the pelvis to one side, slumping forward, etc. All of these are things that can happen just as easily from your feet. As a side note, most muscular pain that comes as a result of poor posture is going to be aggravated in the standing position and eased when sitting. Just something to consider.Yoga is another thing that can lead to major posture problems. What?? It can, if you treat it as most do. Yoga is a practice that needs to be given full attention, effort and dedication. If done this way, it can lead to amazing increases in flexibility, muscular endurance and mobility. The problem is, most treat it as a quick way to warmup for the day or a workout. This is not only not giving it the attention and respect it deserves but will somehow convince the person doing it that they are doing their “yoga” and therefore don’t need to do anything else to fix their postural issues.Of course there are others as well. Posture correctors that you wear on your back to reinforce that you

If you want to get big and strong you must do one thing in your workouts. You have to remember to make progressive overload the guiding principle of your training. You simply cannot force your body to build muscle if you are keeping the status quo on the effort you are putting into your workouts. In this video, I’m going to dispel the myth however that progressive overload means simply adding more weight to the bar. There are many more ways to achieve this, and in doing so, many more opportunities for you to build muscle and get strong.That said, it is important for you to first identify what your specific goal is. Are you looking to just get strong, just build muscle, or both? They both can be accomplished simultaneously, it just means that each will be compromised somewhat along the way. We can minimize the compromises if we know how to get big and strong the right way.To illustrate the differences in approaches we are going to take a classic bodybuilding exercise for building bigger biceps like the dumbbell curl and pit it up against one of the most classic and effective compound lifts - the deadlift. As you’ll see, many of the techniques can be applied to each lift in a slightly different application but with the same end goal.We know that the easiest way to create progressive overload and build strength and muscle size is to do exactly what we said however and add weight to the bar or dumbbell that you are lifting. As strength increases, often times, so too does muscle growth albeit at a slower pace (especially at the beginning of your training).Next we can increase overall volume as long as the volume is of sufficient enough intensity to push your body to adapt in the form of increased muscle size and strength. The key here is to not confuse junk volume for effective volume. Lifting sub maximal weights that are greatly beneath your strength capacity is not going to trigger enough of a response to get either stronger or bigger.Which brings us to effort level. Not talking about intensity as defined in the realm of strength as a percentage of a max but rather simply about the amount of effort you are directing into your training. If you are lazily lifting your weights rather than attacking them with a focused intention, then you are likely leaving many gains on the table and missing an obvious opportunity for overload.We don’t always have to focus on how much we are lifting to ensure progressive overload. We can focus on how long we rest between sets that we are performing to achieve an progression as well. If your sets and reps are the same and the intensity is consistent but you decreased the rest time between sets by even just one minute, your second workout would serve as a form of overload and drive positive adaptations.Range of motion is another way we can increase the effectiveness of an exercise from workout to workout without having to change the amount of weight on the bar. Performing either a deficit deadlift or a one and a half rep curl are going to increase the travel of the bar or dumbbell respectively on every rep and therefore create more work for the muscles you are training.The range itself however does not always have to be lengthened. You can increase the “effective” range by taking advantage of accommodating resistance and overlapping strength curves. The inclusion of a band on a dumbbell curl or chains on a deadlift will help you to better match the strength curve of the exercise for a longer part of the range - thereby increasing it’s overall effectiveness.Speed and momentum are also methods that can be manipulated for overload and are discussed in more detail in the video.The key is that thinking that adding more weight to the bar is the only way for yo

If you have ever had back pain or you are dealing with it right now, you know how debilitating it can be. In this video, I’m going to tell you the truth about back pain and what you really need to do to fix it permanently. All too often, you are told to rest in order to alleviate your symptoms. The problem is, this is exactly the opposite of what you should do if you want to get rid of back pain forever and never have it return.You must exercise and get stronger if you want to fix all back related issues. That said, the first thing you need to do is make sure you know what type of back pain you are dealing with. See a physician or physical therapist for an accurate diagnosis of your particular problem. In all cases, regardless of what your specific diagnosis is and even if you wind up having the rare surgery necessary to fix your condition, you are still going to need to exercise your back muscles and get them stronger if you want to have no recurrence of your pain. With that said, I put together a step by step plan for you so you can start doing something about your pain right away and start feeling better by the time today is over. If you haven’t already seen it, be sure to watch the following video on how to fix low back pain instantly. How to Fix Low Back Pain (INSTANTLY!)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWmGArQBtFIIt has helped millions of people who have had intense low back pain and have tried seemingly everything. This simple sequence is something that may be a game changer for you and help position you for doing the exercises shown in the rest of this video better.Regarding the low back exercise sequence you want to follow in this video, here you go.1. Start with a bar hang. The key is to keep your toes in light contact with the ground in order to allow your hips and pelvis to drop and give your low back muscles a chance to release. Any joint compression issues you may be having in the spine will be helped by this move as well. 60 second hangs a few times a day are a great place to start and will likely not aggravate any pain you might be having at the moment.2. Perform either a banded or cable seated row. The key is to keep the load extremely light here. This is all about the range of motion and getting the muscles of the upper back to start firing while driving some blood flow to the muscles of the lower back. Get that good stretch at the bottom of every rep to help loosen up those lumbar paraspinals. 3. The reverse hyper is something that everyone can do (either on the edge of a bench or bed) and will be the first move to get the all important activation of the glutes initiated. We know that the long term solution to your low back pain is going to rely on stronger glute muscles that work in concert with the muscles of the low back. This is easy and can be done pain free essentially anywhere.4. The hyper row takes this glute activation to the next level and provides you with the opportunity to hold some extra weight in your hands to additionally strengthen the muscles of the low back and lats. Even though the back lifts first here, it’s still the glutes that should be contracting and bracing in order to drive the movement of the upper back.5. In the first of three exercises on your feet, we start with the pullthrough. Only after you’ve mastered the ability to perform the other exercises up to this point pain free would you move onto this. That said, when ready you start here. This allows for you to drive the kinetic chain from the ground up and use some substantial weight to continue to build the muscles of the entire posterior chain.6. The deadlift will build upon the proper hinge learned during the pull through and overload the muscles o

If you are looking for a home leg workout that will help you to build muscle without needing access to a full gym, then this is the video for you. Here, you have two complete options for a limited equipment leg workout that requires just a single set of dumbbells or a completely bodyweight leg workout that you can do in just a little bit of space in your living room.The key to the success of this workout is in its construction. Here you have something called APEX leg workouts. The key to an APEX workout is that it pairs three exercises for the legs done in succession that are done with very little rest. The rest is determined by the level of difficulty that you are doing the workout at. If you are a beginner, then you perform each leg exercise for 15 seconds and rest for 15 seconds before moving onto the next one in the circuit. Intermediate trainees will perform each for 20 seconds, earning just 10 seconds rest. Finally, the advanced lifters are doing the exercises for 25 seconds with just 5 seconds rest between them.After the completion of the APEX circuit, you have 30 seconds to rest before you have to move onto a 2 minute corrective circuit for strengthening the hip muscles. The hips are often times overlooked in leg workouts but not here. In order to maximize the strength of your legs you need to work on the weak links as well. The hips almost always are the culprit for decreased overall leg strength but tend to respond very quickly to even a little bit of extra attention in your leg workouts.30 seconds of exercise are performed on each of the exercises of the corrective circuit.After completing your first corrective leg circuit, you earn another 30 seconds of rest and then proceed to the next APEX leg exercise circuit. The workout continues until all 4 circuits are done. For a beginner or intermediate, this will take about 20 minutes. This would be the entire leg workout. If, on the other hand, you are going to attempt this at a more advanced level you could opt for an additional round which would bring your total workout time up to about 45 minutes.With that said, here is how the workout breaks down for those who are looking to try this at home leg workout for themselves.APEX 1:Anterior Chain - DB Goblet Squats or Bodyweight SquatsPosterior Chain - DB Bridge March or Bridge MarchesExplosive - DB Swings or Bodyweight SwingsRest 30 secondsCorrective 1 - Jane Fonda’s x 30 seconds each legCorrective 2 - 1 1/2 Rep Adductor Slides x 30 seconds each legRest 30 secondsAPEX 2:Anterior Chain - DB Reverse Lunges or Bodyweight Reverse LungesPosterior Chain - DB Sprinter Lunges or Bodyweight Sprinter LungesExplosive - DB Jump Squats or Jump SquatsRest 30 secondsCorrective 1 - 1 1/2 Jane Fonda’s x 30 seconds each legCorrective 2 - Adductor Slides x 30 seconds each legRest 30 secondsAPEX 3:Anterior Chain - DB Never Ending Squat or Bodyweight VersionPosterior Chain - DB Hamstring RDL or Bodyweight Hamstring RDLExplosive - DB Glute Power RDLRest 30 secondsCorrective 1 - Jane Fonda’s x 30 seconds each legCorrective 2 - 1 1/2 Rep Adductor Slides x 30 seconds each legRest 30 secondsAPEX 4:Anterior Chain - DB Reverse Creeping Lunges or Creeping LungesPosterior Chain - DB Long Leg Bridges or Bodyweight Long Leg BridgesExplosive - Sprinter Plyo LungesRest 30 secondsCorrective 1 - 1 1/2 Jane Fonda’s x 30 seconds each legCorrective 2 - Adductor Slides x 30 seconds each legGive this home leg workout a shot and if you are looking for a complete bodyweight workout program that you can do wit

Your grip during lifting is killing your gains if you are making any of the mistakes shown in this video. When it comes to reaching training goals, the thing that can derail you faster than anything else is an injury. When the grip is less than ideal (as is often the case with most lifters) then you are subjecting yourself to the most common and debilitating inflammatory condition suffered by those that workout, and that is medial epicondylitis or golfers elbow.You know if you have it. It’s that knife-like stabbing pain that you get on the inside of your elbow every time you try and grip a bar or pull-up bar during any pulling exercise. This can be problematic in terms of your ability to do a heavy deadlift, weighted chinup, pullup, row, curl or even a lat pulldown. The fact of the matter is however, you are in complete control of how to fix this.In this video, I’m going to show you the anatomical reason for this overload and how to offset some of that load on all of the exercises mentioned above. Secondly, I want to try and show you how important it is to not just grip the bar or barbell without thought but to make sure it is in the right place in your hand to minimize the unnecessary stress being driven towards that inner elbow.Let’s start as always with some anatomy. The muscle in the forearm most responsible for causing this pain in the elbow is called the flexor digitorum superficialis or FDS for short. This muscle has two heads to it, the radial head and the humeral ulnar head. It is the latter that is most responsible for the pain being felt at your elbow. With attachments that feed through the wrist and insert on the middle phalanx of the ring and pinky finger, it is this head that is being asked to incur the forces that we are subjecting it to via heavy weighted chins, deadlifts and rows (or even bodyweight versions of the chin or row). This is just not something this small muscle is equipped to handle.The solution in all environments (whether it be on a pull-up bar or training with a barbell) is to fix two things. First, you need to fix the placement of the bar in your hands to better provide your body to mechanically leverage your ability to handle high load stresses. Secondly, you need to be aware of the tendency of the ring finger to want to dominate given it’s leveraged position relative to the other fingers when you close your hand down to grip, and understand how to minimize that.When it comes to the chinups and pullups, the first thing you want to do is change how you are gripping the bar. It all revolves around the middle knuckle of your fingers. On the pull-up, you want to make sure that you cannot see this middle knuckle from beneath the bar. If you can, then this means that you are losing your grip and the bar is drifting to the end of your fingers. This causes a high strain on this flexor tendon we spoke of.On the chinup, you want to be sure that you can see this knuckle. Here, if you do not, it means that you are once again losing your grip and allowing the bar to stress the distal tendon attachment too much leading to high strain and stress on the elbow.To minimize the ring finger from dominating this exercise, you want to do the following. Place a band around the bar as shown. It should create two laps of band that you can now rest your fourth and fifth fingers on. The increased height changes the length tension relationship of the tendons in these fingers causing them to contribute less to the grip. The forefinger and middle finger are now much more active in the grip and better capable of withstanding the high stresses without killing your elbows.On barbell work the best thing you can do is temporarily switch to a hook grip. The hook grip, while initially uncomfortable, can be a lifes