The Best Arm Exercises You've Never Heard Of

In today's post I'm going to talk about some of the best arm exercises you've never heard of. I know that sounds kinda strange, but the truth is, most people have a pretty limited repertoire when it comes to arm training.

I'll admit, I haven't written much about arm training, because for the most part unless you're a bodybuilder or you need bigger arms for whatever reason, most people will get all the arm
development from just pushing their limits with all of their pressing and pulling movements.

That said, it doesn't mean that you won't benefit from some dedicated arm training, and there are some pretty good combinations of common exercises that can thoroughly thrash your arms. But what happens if that extra inch on those pipes really DOES matter?

**** If you couldn't care less about arm training, then just ****
**** stop reading here. I don't want to waste your time, ****
**** and this post is all about arm training. ****

Ok, good, you're still with me...

So, what then? Grabbing those dumbbells for another set of curls can get a little monotonous at times. So what are you supposed to do?

The first thing you need to do if you want to spark some new arm growth is to identify why your current arm routine is not working.

There are 5 common mistakes that I see regularly at the gym when people are training their arms.

Mistake #1 - Using Too Much Weight

With the possible exception of standing barbell curls and close grip bench press, which offer a neural benefit when trained heavy, the goal of direct arm training exercises should be to fatigue the
muscles thereby inducing the hormonal cascade that precipitates a local growth response.

I can't tell you how many times I see folks doing what looks like a "Reverse Grip Dumbbell Clean". It's pretty ridiculous. Pick a weight that allows you to complete the reps with decent form, but also don't worry too much if there's a little extra body movement.


Mistake #2 - Not Using Enough Weight

Generally guys won't make this mistake, so this mistake applies mostly to you girls out there who with good intentions are trying to not commit mistake number one. Most guys have massive egos that are way too big to ever risk making this mistake. God forbid some particularly beefy chick is committing mistake number 2 with more weight than you are while committing mistake number 1.

Whoa... did I get that right? Follow me?

The point is, girls, that you might feel it un-ladylike to grunt in the gym, but other than testosterone, there is a reason you usually find guys are more built than you, it's because they're not afraid
to put some meat and potatoes into their lifting!

So if you can get 15 reps (or god forbid even 20) with the same weight of bicep curls for a full three sets and you aren't scrunching up your face in the process, it's time to up the weight and drop
your reps.


Mistake #3 - Mirror Focus vs. Muscle Focus

Sigh... yes, this one applies again, mostly to us guys (I know I've committed this one in the past... it's so hard not too! ;).

There's something about a mirror and what it does to how we perceive ourselves while training. When guys tend to train their arms, it's as if the mirror doubles the size of our arms while we're watching.

I mean really, have you seen the look on guys' faces while they're training their guns? They may have pistols, but they see anti-aircraft artillery canons in the mirror! LOL

What we see in the mirror is ego-fueled, it doesn't necessarily give us the best information about the effects on our muscles of what we're doing.

Muscle Focus gives us far more information. Without the mirror, you're forced to think about what you are feeling in the muscle rather than just what you see.

Trust me... what you feel is MORE important. I have stopped using the mirror for virtually all training over the past year, and I have learned to identify my body position more than ever before. I have
also learned to identify when to force out a few more reps and when to call it a set. The result has been far more effective training.


Mistake #4 - Using The Insanity Training Principle

Presumably you're training your arms because you want them to get bigger and stronger. Ok. We're good. So if you've been using the same old exercises... let me guess.. Standing barbell curls, preacher EZ Bar curls, then concentration curls...

Am I close?

Point is, if you haven't been making any progress with your arm training (hint: use a tape measure, and look at the weight you're lifting), and you've been following the same old arm training routine... regardless of who wrote it and whether or not they had huge arms, if you aren't making progress from it, why are you doing it?

It's called the Insanity Training Principle. Following the same old routine that hasn't given you any results for a long time, and expecting that it will all of a sudden manage to give you great results.


Mistake #5 - Fear of Shrinkage

If you're really afraid of shrinkage... just stay away from steroids!

Seriously though, mistake #5 can be thought of as a adjunct of mistake #4. Many people reach a point in their training where they aren't making any more progress with their training, yet they keep following the same routine for fear that if they stop, they'll shrink away to nothing.

If you're seriously pounding away at the weights and nothing is happening, you could very well be over-training. Not too many people over-train, but it is possible, and if you are over-training,
backing off for a lighter week, or cutting out arm training all together for a week, or even taking a look at the possibility of using some different bicep and tricep exercises can really make a
big difference.

And speaking of DIFFERENT arm exercises, my colleague Nick Nilsson has put together a great book called: "The Best Arm Exercises You've Never Heard Of"

I was actually speaking to Nick a few weeks back when he asked me to review his new book. I was intrigued by the title because really, since the elbow is a hinge joint, how many ways can you really
train the arms anyway?

After reading it... 68 apparently! That I hadn't thought of before!

Here's the review I sent back to Nick:

> Hi Nick,
>
> Thanks for the opportunity to review your new book called The Best
> Arm Exercises You've Never Heard Of. To be honest I was mildly
> jaded going in as the last few articles I'd read on arm training
> were pretty lame.
>
> Your book completely blew me out of the water! I know that sounded
> kinda "hypey", and if you've ever read my stuff, you'll know it's
> totally not my style to "hype" stuff up, but to be honest, I'm
> totally stoked to try some of the exercises in your book.
>
> If your readers are seeking a way to stimulate new strength and
> muscle growth, this is it! With your crazy stable of
> mad-scientist arm exercises, I think it would be impossible not to
> make some crazy new gains!
>
> There I said it... yes Nick, I think you are a mad scientist! But
> I guess that's ok, I presume you kinda like to be thought of that
> way. ;)
>
> Well you're a genius anyway!
>
> Shane Miller, CPT, CSN
> Your Strength and Fat Loss Coach
> http://www.your-strength-and-fat-loss-coach.com
> http://www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com
>
>
> I hope that is a decent review that you can use with your readers.
>
> I can't wait to show my readers your book, I know they're going to
> love it.
>
> If you need me to change anything, please let me know.
>
> All the best,
>
> :)
> Shane


So there you have it folks, that's the review I sent to Nick, and while this book isn't for everyone, it's definitely going to be a huge asset to anyone who's bound and determined to grow their arms.

You folks know who you are. If you want to pick up a copy of Nick's book, visit the link below:

The Best Arm Exercises You've Never Heard Of

Chances are if you've read this far anyway, then you're definitely interested in arm training, and you really won't believe how many exercises there are for really effectively training your arms.

That link once again is:

The Best Arm Exercises You've Never Heard Of

I know tomorrow when I train I'm definitely going to do a set of "Bodyweight Preacher Curls"... yeah... try to imagine that one!


Until next time,

:)
Shane Miller, CPT, CSN
Your Strength and Fat Loss Coach
www.your-strength-and-fat-loss-coach.com
www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com

Strength Training Workout of The Week

Due to popular demand, I'll be putting up the strength training workout of the week. Each week when I work with my one-on-one private studio clients, there will often be a workout that is so good, in fact, I'll even get jealous that they get to do it and not me. So I may post it as the strength training workout of the week.

For you guys who are my one-0n-one private studio clients, you may recognize one of these workouts as your own! ;)


Warm-up
Skipping 5 minutes

Soft Tissue Work
Foam Roller: Quads/IT Bands/Lats
Tennis Ball: Piriformis/Glute Medius

Activation Work
Glute Bridge w/Medball between the knees
20 sec isometric squeeze then 10-20 reps

Serratus Pushups 10-15 reps

Wall Slides 10 reps

Tube External Rotations 10-20 reps ea. side


Strength Training Workout

Always work up to your heaviest weight for each exercise with a couple lighter warm-up sets first. For example, if your working weight for 5 reps on Box Squats is 150 lbs, then you might do your warm-ups as follows: 1x6x45, 1x5x95, 1x3x135... then move onto your work sets.

For exercises where technique is more of an issue and you aren't using that heavy of a weight for your working sets, you may find you don't need any warm-up sets. This may also be true of subsequent exercises for each body part, as they will be warmed up well from the previous exercises.

1a/ Box Squats 5x5
1b/ 1-Dumbbell Push Press 4x6

2a/ Supported Pistol Squats 3x10
2b/ Weighted Pushups 4x10

3a/ Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts 4x8
3b/ 1-Blast Straps/TRX/Barbell Inverted Rows 3x10

4a/ T-Twist Abs 3x20
4b/ Band X-Walk 3x10


Move from one exercise to the next immediately within each superset group.

Rest a minute between each superset group.


Do this workout, then let me know how it went in the comments section!

Kill it!

:)
Shane

Fat Loss Watch It In Action

Ever wonder what fat loss looks like? Well you don't have to wonder anymore. Fat loss watch it in action, before your very own eyes!

Your Beach Body Boot Camp

Fat Loss In Action

I've recently had a few people on the fence about whether they're going to join Your Beach Body Boot Camp, citing that they don't want to be wasting their time with ineffective, boring routines like at some other boot camps that they'd already done.

To answer that, all I can say is that each day, my girls get out there and the just kill it! It's wild! They love it so much, I just had to take this video to show you guys, and to hopefully lay any worries to rest about whether or not this is THE FAT LOSS-ACTION JACKSON!

If you don't think Your Beach Body Boot Camp will melt the fat off you, come and try it on me! I'll make it totally worth your while. For whatever reason, if you feel like Your Beach Body Boot Camp isn't your best chance of getting as lean as you can, as fast as humanly possible, then I'll refund you every single cent.

You've got nothing to lose!

So head on over to www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com/join.php and let's get it on!

Until the next time!

:)
Shane
Your Strength and Fat Loss Coach
www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com
www.your-strength-and-fat-loss-coach.com

Build Muscle and Burn Fat At Home

I’ve been working a lot lately on a new product that I can’t wait to share with you guys. It's going to help you build muscle and burn fat at home with minimal equipment. It will be available through my website once it’s finished. The product will be an electronic, downloadable training program complete with full video gallery, a full program manual, and printable workout logs.


If you read my last post, you'll know how important it is to be as "inefficient" as possible when trying to burn fat. This program will definitely help you be as inefficient as possible while both building muscle and losing fat.


A while back I sat down to brainstorm the best possible program that could be done at home with minimal equipment, that would produce measurable results in a fraction of the time that most people’s exercise routines require. There were three main criteria for designing this program.


The key elements of the program are:

1. High-power movements that involve high levels of muscle tension, which helps to promote strength gains.
2. High calorie expenditure which promotes rapid fat loss.
3. Minimal time requirement, so that there are NO MORE EXCUSES.


Item number three is the one that people will be most excited by. The absolute minimum time requirement is only 4 minutes a day. Don’t get me wrong, four minutes a day isn’t enough if that’s all you ever do, but on those days where you don’t have more than 4 minutes, any of the four-minute routines will keep you strong, fit, and motivated.


I’ve got four sample workouts from the program below. I’m starting to film video of the exercises for the program next week, so I don’t have the videos for you yet, but as soon as they’re ready, I’ll be making the ones from the sample below available to you free of charge.


Each group of exercises are done in a circuit. Instead of counting reps, you will go by time. I suggest picking yourself up an interval timer. The best one out there is GYMBOSS. I use it for my bootcamps, and it is simple to use and only costs $20. I ordered it online from their WEBSITE, and it arrived in the mail in only 4 days.


If you are unaccustomed to vigorous exercise, you start slowly, and just focus on the technique, building up your speed and effort level over time.


Circuit #1 (4 minutes)

Bodyweight Warrior Squats 20:20
Inverted Rows 20:20
Supported 1-Leg Squats 20:20
Pushups 20:20
Lateral “skating” hop 20:20
Extended Abdominal Plank 20:20



Circuit #2 (4 minutes)

Bodyweight Front Squats 20:20
Pull-ups (assisted if necessary) 20:20
Supported Pistol Squats 20:20
Pike Pushups 20:20
Lateral Step-Overs 20:20
Floorclimbers 20:20



Circuit #3 (4 minutes)

Bodyweight Jump Squats 20:20
Alternating DB Bent-Over Rows 20:20
Split Jump Squats 20:20
Hindu Pushups 20:20
Lateral Jump to 1-Leg Squat 20:20
Mountain Climbers 20:20


Circuit #4 (4 minutes)

Bodyweight 1-Leg Jump Squats 20:20
Band Pull-Apart To Chest 20:20
Sumo Band Squats 20:20
Plyo Push-ups (from knees) 20:20
4-Way Hop 20:20
T-Twists 20:20


Increase the difficulty of each exercise by increasing your speed of movement. Be sure not to drop too quickly in the bodyweight squat, as you don’t want to bottom out.


Depending on your fitness level, start off with just one or two circuits and train every other day. Each week, add another circuit, or do two rounds of the same circuit. Keep increasing the number of circuits and/or rounds of circuits until your total time reaches about 20 minutes. That's all you'll have to do to get amazing results.


If you like these workouts, and want even more variety, check out your local bootcamps, and look for boot camps where they run people through short but super-intense exercises involving lifting, carrying, throwing, pulling, dragging, and flipping of any number of different objects such as tires, ropes, and sandbags. Bodyweight exercises are great too, but they need to be done in circuit fashion like the circuits above in order to produce the rapid fat loss effects. Simply doing lunges for a minute then pushups then crunches is just going to make you sore.


The smartest thing you could do though without a doubt, is to check THIS out! Nothing will strip the fat off you faster! I designed Your Beach Body Boot Camp to be quite possibly the fastest fat loss program ever.


I won’t lie to you though, it’s tough. Really, really tough. But the folks who are coming down and really pushing their limits are seeing some incredible changes to their bodies!


Ah what the heck, nothing wrong with a healthy bit of self-promotion! ;)


So that’s it for this week’s newsletter, I hope you’ve enjoyed the three articles I had for you today. I’ll be back with a few more blog posts later in the week, and a brand new newsletter next week!


If someone forwarded the newsletter to you or sent you the link to my blog and you haven’t signed up for my newsletter yet, you really should. It’s absolutely free, and to boot you’ll get my Free 7-Day Fat Loss Jumpstart guide. There’s so much great info in it that I really should be selling it instead of giving it away, but I think the info is so important that I want everyone to have it.


To join up, just fill in your name and email address on the right side of my site up near the top. I promise to never share your name or email address with anyone.


Have a great week!

:)
Shane Miller, CPT, CSN
Your Strength and Fat Loss Coach
www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com
www.your-strength-and-fat-loss-coach.com

To Burn Fat Fast You Must Be Inefficient

To Burn Fat Fast Inefficiency Is A Must!

Inefficiency? Really? Don’t you mean Efficiency?

Nope.. I mean Inefficiency!

Here’s the deal:

When you think of an efficient car, what comes to mind? A small car that can go a long way on a small amount of gas. Now what about inefficient car? What comes to mind? How about a Hummer? Or one of those Cadillac Escalades right? Both are gas guzzlers!

Essentially, the smaller more efficient engine requires less energy to do the same amount of work than the bigger, more gas-hungry engine of the Hummer and Cadillac.

In the human body, our “engine” when it comes to burning energy is our muscles. The principles that work in the car are the same as those that work in our bodies. If your goal is to burn as much fat as possible in the shortest amount of time, do you think it is better to be more or less efficient?

Less Efficient!

Because a less efficient machine “wastes” much of the energy that it is given. Most cars have an efficiency of about 18-20%. Which means they only get 18-20% of the energy in the gas to be converted into actual mechanical force that propels the car. Can you guess where the rest of it goes?

HEAT!

That’s right, practically 80% of the energy in the gas is turned into heat. At least you know now why the hood of the car gets so hot after a long drive!

The human body works in exactly the same way. The more inefficient we are, the more heat we produce.

Now, in a car, if you had to be as inefficient as possible, how would you do that? You would accelerate as hard as you can right? Exactly! Everyone knows that frequently stepping hard on the gas is the quickest way to empty your gas tank. Strangely, few people structure their fat-loss training this way.

In every poll ever taken in North America, the number one reason people say they can’t lose their body fat is that they don’t have time to exercise. If you ask me, I’d say the number one reason can be seen from just watching people stuff their grocery carts or their faces at restaurants and cafeterias. I would say the number two reason is lack of time.

However, if I concede that it is lack of time, why is it that for every person I see at a gym who is actually using high intensity interval training methods for fat loss, I see ten people reading the paper on their stationary bikes and elliptical machines?

A couple reasons come to mind. The fact is, pushing yourself hard enough to really do HIIT style workouts is a little scary for some. You do have to leave your comfort zone, and when there’s a nice “fat-burning” zone that’s easy and doesn’t hurt, most people will stay there. But this is also why MOST people do not reach their fat loss goals.

Remember Jared from the Subway commercials? He lost 300 lbs just walking an hour a day and eating a 6” subs. This was great “fat-loss zone” marketing, and it definitely contributed to helping to keep people from reaching their potential.

One of the real problems with training in the fat-loss zone is that you burn so few calories for the time required. In an hour you might shed 300-600 calories depending on your bodyweight and fitness level – but that’s it. There’s no significant elevation of your metabolism afterwards. Considering how easy it is to put those calories back on, it just seems like such a waste.

If you ditch the “fat-loss” zone in favour of high-intensity interval training workouts, you’ll only need about 20 minutes, and you’ll burn upwards of 200-500 calories during your workout, but you’ll continue to burn excess calories for up to 24 hours afterwards. The results can be quite significant. We typically see people losing between 1-3 lbs of body fat a week, with only three 20 minute workouts per week.

This type of training will leave you gasping for air, and this brings us back to the fat burning zone for a moment, I know you’ve also heard that if you can’t carry on a conversation then you aren’t burning any fat. This is true, but unimportant. If you were limited to only burning fat during the time you were exercising it would take you upwards of ten days to burn a single pound of body fat with an hour of slow, boring cardio a day.

What’s more important is the total number of calories burned not just during the exercise, but during the period of elevated metabolism that can last as much as 24 hours after exercise. Scientists call this period of elevated metabolism “EPOC” or Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption.

Essentially, because burning sugar for energy does not require oxygen, the reactions can speed along at incredible rates, liberating great quantities of energy very rapidly. However, it also creates a huge oxygen debt, which is repaid for hours after the exercise is stopped. By becoming inefficient, you’ll literally be burning more calories 24 hours a day.

So folks, stop the long, slow, boring cardio, and get inefficient and blast away your unwanted body fat!

Until next time,

:)

Shane Miller, CPT, CSN

Your Strength and Fat Loss Coach

www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com

www.your-strength-and-fat-loss-coach.com

Can Exercise Actually Make You Gain Fat?

What really ticks me off is when journalists who can’t come up with creative, helpful content, just write crap in order to make headlines!

Take John Cloud from Time Magazine. In his Aug 9^th column, he writes an article entitled “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin”.

HELLO MR. CLOUD: MY JOB IS HARD ENOUGH WITHOUT YOU DOING YOUR BEST TO MAKE IT HARDER!!!!!

Sorry folks, but this is going to be a bit of a rant!

In his article, Mr. Cloud writes about how he’s been exercising for a few years now and can’t seem to get rid of his gut. He quotes a number of studies that are all “true”, but mean nothing in the big picture context.

Mr. Cloud tells his readers how the country now spends more money on trainers and gym memberships than ever before, but still manages to show increasing rates of obesity. He also finishes the article saying how tomorrow he may skip his workout and his post-workout blueberry bar because there is some research showing that as a survival mechanism, when we expend large amounts of energy during intense exercise, hunger signals from our brain are increased.

There’s also a survival mechanism that says if you don’t look both ways before crossing the street you might get smoked by a truck. I wonder if Mr. Cloud would suggest we all stay home and not ever leave our homes anymore to avoid being run over.

YES, Mr. Cloud is correct, when you exercise harder you get hungrier. Makes sense doesn’t it? We are designed by nature to survive, not get lean and ripped. And by the way Mr. Cloud have you actually looked on the wrapper of your (Kellogg’s) Blueberry Bar? There’s about 270 calories, maybe 5g of protein, 45g of carbs, and 7g fat. If you eat this after your exercise, you’ll definitely replace the energy you just burned off.

There is a huge problem with Mr. Cloud’s article as a whole. It is basically telling the reader that they are powerless in their weight loss pursuits. That if you exercise harder you might actually gain weight, because you wont’ be able to help yourself .

Here are two quotes from Mr. Cloud’s article. In the first quote, he is speaking in the first person. In the second, he is quoting the journal Psychological Bulletin:

“What's going on here? Church calls it compensation, but you and I (Mr. Cloud) might know it as the lip-licking anticipation of perfectly salted, golden-brown French fries after a hard trip to the gym.”

“If you force yourself to jog for an hour, your self-regulatory capacity is proportionately enfeebled. Rather than lunching on a salad, you'll be more likely to opt for pizza.”

Excuse me for a second… are you freakin’ kidding me?

I HAVE NEVER, EVER OPTED FOR PIZZA OR FRENCH FRIES AFTER LEAVING THE GYM WHEN MY GOALS HAVE BEEN FAT LOSS.

Seriously folks… if you’re trying to lose body fat, and you exercise hard and then go eat a bunch of crap… then you’re just plain hilarious. Clearly, you have either no idea, in which case now you do… or you just don’t really care if you lose any weight.

You can look all you want for examples of people who exercise and don’t lose weight and you can use it as your excuse to not exercise, but all the people I know who are serious about losing body fat, and who are actually making progress are busting their butts at the gym and it shows!

Maybe the editor of Time Magazine Online should make sure that with such a serious obesity problem as the country faces, that any articles they publish empower people to take action instead of just giving them another excuse to do nothing.

No matter how you look at it, this article by John Cloud gets a serious thumbs down from me!

Anybody else agree with me? Please leave your comments below!

:)

Shane Miller, CPT, CSN

Your Strength and Fat Loss Coach

www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com

www.your-strength-and-fat-loss-coach.com