VIDEO
Pushup Variation
- Core
- Back
- Biceps
- Triceps
- Trapezius
Level:Intermediate
Trainer:
Equipment:Bench
Put your hands and toes on the mat. Keep your arms straight, but don't lock your elbows. Align your feet making the straight line with your arms and core. Inhaling, bend your elbows and lower your chest to the ground slowly. Straighten your arms to lift your core up, exhaling.
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Blog
Trapezius muscles are often underestimated, and many people don’t pay much attention to them while working out. However, it is a huge mistake because these muscles are extremely important for the right posture as well as back health. So in this article, we’ll talk about trapezius muscles and how to develop them.
Why Do I Need to Work on Trapezius Muscles?
The trapezius is a part of the upper back which helps us to maintain the right posture. The muscle group consists of three different parts, which are top, medium, and bottom. Together with the muscles of the neck, the trapezius is responsible for the right posture. The upper part of this muscle is responsible for the rise of the shoulder as well as the ability to lift arms. The lower one - is for lowering shoulders and arms. At the same time, the middle one is needed for blade movement. As you can see, this muscle group is responsible for many basic functions, which is why developing the trapezius muscles is extremely important for everyone, especially for those people who have some problems with their posture.
How Often Should I Do Trapezius Workouts?
Ideally, you have to include at least 2-3 trapezius exercises in each workout session. At the same time, you have to work out 3 times a week. In some cases, it’s better to have 4 training sessions per week. In case you have some issues with your posture and you cannot keep your back straight because your spine muscles (especially trapezius) are weak, we recommend doing at least a few exercises for trapezius muscles every day.
Who Needs Trapezius Exercises the Most?
Of course, everybody needs to straighten their trapezius muscles, but, obviously, some people need it more than others. So who are those people? Well, here is a short list of those you must pay more attention to their trapezius muscles:
Office workers who work long hours at the desk
People who have posture problems and struggle to keep their back straight
Athletes and fitness enthusiasts who lift heavy weights
Boxers, volleyballers, basketballers, and other sportsmen who actively involve their arms in their sports activity
Dancers and gymnasts who need strong and developed back muscles
Do you belong to any of these groups? Then you better start working on your trapezius muscles now.
Best Workouts for Trapezius
Last but not least, we would like to recommend you some trapezius workouts, so here they come:
Shrug
Deadlift
Shoulder blade squeeze
Barbell row
Upright row
Reverse dumbbell flyes
Chin-up
Pull-up
Push-up
Lat-pulldown
Rear delt cable raise
High pulley cable row
Overhead farmer's walk
Y raise
Rope rear delt pull
Wrapping Up
Trapezius muscles are super important for your back health, so no matter what your occupation is or how often you work out, you still need to find at least a few minutes for some exercises for the trapezius.
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After the abdominal muscles are prepared, the obliques are the next step. The obliques are several groups of abdominal muscles on either side of the main body. The external obliques are at the top and the internal obliques are at the bottom. Training them with functional exercises includes flexion, twisting, and other rotational movements. In order to properly exercise the lateral muscles, however, it is important to remember that most oblique exercises also involve the other abdominal muscles, especially the medial transverse muscles. Therefore, you need to engage certain areas of the abdominal abs in a conscious manner.
Lateral twists
The basic exercise for the abdominal obliques is the lying lateral twist. Begin with lying on your side with your arm bent at the elbow to support your head. Extend the elbow toward the leg slowly, performing a purposeful contraction of the abdominal obliques.
Prone lateral push-ups
This exercise is fine for developing the neuromuscular links between the abs and the brain. Lying on the back, pull your left elbow in a slow tempo towards the opposite knee. Perform 12-15 reps on each side, and try to achieve a special burning feeling.
Lateral push-ups on a fitness ball
The advantage of this exercise is that you achieve a wide range of motion by bending your body slowly and controlling each movement over the ball. As you lift, feel your side abdominals twist and stretch as you descend. Place your arms behind your neck and do not move them apart.
Cross contacts
Make sure that your legs are straightened up while you are lying on your back. Place your hands on the back of your head and lift your head and shoulder blades slightly. Then do a twisting motion, extending your legs with the opposite arm straight. Perform the same movement for the other side. Repeat at least 20 times.
Lift your hips
Make sure you are lying straight on one side. Your feet should be lying on top of each other and your free arm fixed at the waist. You need to lift your torso so that your body line is completely straight at peak amplitude. At the apex, pause briefly to emphasize the work of the obliques. As you lower your torso, your thighs are only gently touching the ground and the muscles are not fully relaxed.
Developed obliques provide the framework for your abs and make them look amazing, so if you really want to have a great abdomen, you should work both your abs and obliques.
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Upper back muscles are extremely important for the right posture, yet many people completely forget about these muscles while working out, which is a big mistake. So why are these muscles so important, and how to train them? These are the questions we will attempt to answer in this article.
What Is Upper Back?
The muscles of the upper back consist of two main parts, which are the trapezius and latissimus muscles. Apart from that, many experts also involve the back bundles of deltas in the upper back muscle group since they are involved in most workouts for the upper back muscles. At the same time, referring to these muscles as a part of the upper back is incorrect from the anatomical point of view.
The main function of the trapezius muscles is to provide the movement of the shoulder blades as well as make it possible to raise arms and lift objects. These muscles are also rather important for our posture as well as the ability to keep our back straight. At the same time, the latissimus muscles are located on both sides of the back. They resemble wings in shape and occupy almost the entire back area. These muscles are needed to pull the arms back as well as bring the shoulders to the body.
Why Do I Need to Develop My Upper Back?
So we have already figured out that the upper back muscles are responsible for the right posture as well as the ability to raise arms and lift objects, but who needs to work on their upper back? Well, a strong upper back is perhaps one of the main goals for everyone. In particular, among the people who need to work on their upper back are:
Office workers who work all day at the desk
Professional dancers and dance enthusiasts who need a strong back and perfect posture
Athletes who actively involve the neck, shoulder, and back muscles while doing their sports activities
Fitness enthusiasts and bodybuilders who strive to grow muscles and harmoniously develop all muscle groups
People who want to have a nice posture
So do you belong to any of these groups? We bet you do. So make sure to add at least a few upper back exercises into your workout routine.
Best Exercises for Upper Back
To wrap up, we would like to provide you with some useful workouts for your upper back, so without any further ado, here they come:
Reverse fly
Bent over barbell row
Barbell high rows
Single-arm dead stop row
T-pulls
TRX row
Upright row
Single-arm landmine row
Y-pulls
Face pull
Seated row
Hang clean
Renegade row
These simple exercises will help you develop your upper back muscles quickly and stress-free, so make sure to give them a try.
Wrapping Up
Developed upper back muscles are essential for the right posture as well as for avoiding injuries while doing other sports activities. So no matter if you are a professional athlete or not, you still need to work on these muscles.
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СWorking on the core muscles is not only essential for good looks, but also for your health. In this article, we will talk about core muscles and how to develop them. So without any further ado, let us begin.
Core Muscles: What Do They Consist of?
To put it simply, core muscles consist of two main groups, which are central and peripheral. The central muscles resemble a sac that protects internal organs by covering the abdominal cavity. In other words, we need these muscles to keep the vital organs safe. In fact, if we didn’t have these muscles, a slight kick in the abdominal area would cause significant damage to vital organs. Central muscles can be divided into several parts, which are:
Front - abs
Lateral parts - oblique muscles and the surrounding muscles
Back - the muscles that support the spine
Upper wall - diaphragm
Lower wall - pelvic floor muscles
The second group of core muscles, the peripheral muscle group, consists of the trapezius, the latissimus dorsi muscle, the pectoralis muscle, the buttocks, and the muscles of the shoulder girdle. These muscles are essential for our posture and back health, which means that developing those is rather important for everyone who wants to be healthy and look beautiful.
Both central and peripheral core muscle groups are extremely significant for our health, posture, as well as the way we look. Therefore, in the next paragraph, we are going to talk about the best exercises for strengthening these muscles.
Best Workouts for Strengthening Core Muscles
So we made it pretty clear that developing core muscles is important for pretty much everyone. So what exercises can you do to strengthen these muscles? Well, here they come:
High plank
Supine toe tap
Hollowman
Bird Dog
Crunches
Bicycle crunch
Superman
Warrior crunch
Supine leg lifts
Elbow to knee
Bridge
Mountain climber
V-sit
V-ups
Side plank
Plank shoulder taps
Turkish get-up
Elbow plank twists
As you can see, there are many workouts that will no doubt help you develop core muscles and eventually become healthy and fit. So why don’t you grab your fitness mat and try at least some of these useful exercises to see their effectiveness yourself?
Wrapping Up
Not only are core muscles essential for beautiful abs, but also rather important for your back health and posture. Furthermore, these muscles protect your internal organs, which is a pretty important feature. Therefore, if you regularly train but you always avoid core exercises thinking they are not as important as the workouts for your legs or arms, you better stop doing that because core muscles are perhaps the most important muscle group in your body.
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While working on their arms, many people concentrate on the biceps and completely forget about the workouts for the triceps. Of course, working on your triceps is super important since you have to develop these muscles in order to have strong and relief arms. So how to train your triceps and grow beautiful muscles? This is the question we’ll try to answer in this article.
Is It Difficult to Develop Triceps?
Many people believe that growing triceps is extremely challenging, but luckily, it’s not true. The thing is anatomically triceps are rather easy to train and eventually grow. At the same time, these muscles easily get sore after training and therefore impact your entire arm workout routine since you aren’t able to do certain exercises. In general, working on triceps is not as difficult as many people think, yet it still requires some time and effort.
How Long Does It Take To Grow Triceps?
The amount of time it takes to develop triceps depends on what you are striving for as well as what you start with. For example, if you are skinny and you just want to make your arms more fit, a few months will be enough. In case you want to grow really pronounced muscles, you might need from 6 to 12 months. At the same time, if you have some extra pounds, working on your triceps can take longer since you also have to lose weight. As you can see, every situation is different, so it’s hard to give you the precise amount of time you’ll need to grow your triceps.
How Often Should I Exercise?
To grow any muscle group as well as be healthy and fit, you need to work out at least three times a week. Of course, you need to understand that even if you try to develop triceps, you still have to work on other muscle groups, so all the muscles in your body are harmoniously developed. In general, most trainers recommend doing 4-6 exercises for triceps during your workouts. Each exercise has to be done in 2-3 sets, while the set has to have 10-15 repetitions. In addition to that, you have to keep in mind that you should start with simple workouts and gradually move towards more advanced ones to see the results of your training sessions.
Exercises for Triceps
Of course, many of you are interested in the best workouts for developing triceps muscles. Well, first of all, you can head to our video sessions and rain with our experienced coaches. Secondly, you can check out the following workouts:
Close-grip bench press
Tricep dips
Lying triceps extension
Isolated triceps extension
Cable rope tricep pushdown
JM press
Diamond push-ups
Underhand cable pushdowns
One-arm overhead extension
Dumbbell tricep extensions
Bench dip
Dumbbell floor press
Push-up
One arm kettlebell floor press
45-degree incline dumbbell chest press
Wrapping Up
Gorgeous triceps is a dream come true for any fitness enthusiast and professional athlete, so no wonder why these exercises are so popular. Head to our videos section and explore triceps workouts from our instructors.
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