Health Articles for Bodybuilding

When it comes to muscle building, Bench press is the most common exercise. In every movie scene at gym, there is at least one guy doing bench press. I bet that when you first time went to gym, this one was the exercise you wanted to try out. Why? Because big chest looks really impressive, but bench press is not all about chest – it works out a lot of other muscles too – such as triceps, shoulder muscles, traps and others. In this article I will try to get together everything related with the Bench Press.. from facts and correct technique to myths. So, enjoy your reading!

Ok! Some basics about bench press. In this article I will tell you about flat barbell bench press but there are a lot of variations such as incline/decline bench press, bench press done with dumbbells and others but that’s for other articles. Major muscle worked out chest and triceps – minor deltoids, traps and back.

Now let us move on to the right technique guide! This is vital because you can harm yourself really badly if the bench press is done wrong. I mean even separation from sports for life, so be careful with this one! But once you will master the technique with light weights you will think: ’’how  can someone do this wrong?!’’ So start slowly in order to get best results and rocket up in weights and size of your chest!
First. Understand that this is NOT some kind of joke or some dance movement! This is serious exercise – do it slowly and stay concentrated in all periods of exercise. This exercise seems easy at first, but when you will find yourself under the barbell with shaking hands, you will change your mind very fast. So – lie down, find yourself a comfortable position under the barbell (nose facing the barbell.. this can be individual, but it should be about that way). When you feel ready for the lift, place your hands on the barbell a bit wider than shoulder width (there are a few more positions but I will explain them in other articles) and WRAP your palm around the chest, place your thumb AROUND the barbell – if you won’t do that you will find the barbell falling on your chest faster than you can say: ‘’United States of America’’. Do as said above and you can feel safe on the bench press bench. Next thing to do is to take out the barbell from the rack, do it slowly and concentrated even with light weights. Then follows the bench… lower down the barbell to your chest at the nipple line and then press it straight up after the bar touched your chest. Do not forget to breath… correctly – inhale, hold your breath on the way down – exhale moving the bar up. Legs.. feet .. keep them FLAT on ground – do not move them around as a dancer in some club.

So let us move on to the common errors in Bench Press.

• Bouncing the weight off the chest. DO NOT DO THAT!!! You can hurt yourself badly! And do not rest the bar on your chest. Do the exercise under control, let it touch your chest and then lift it up. Simple as that!
• Inhaling, then hold it while lowering the bar and exhale on lifting up – your lift should be explosive!
• Feet. Leave them in the same position. Stay rooted.

Some myths about bench press.

• Maxing out very often. Many thinks that doing the one rep max often will increase it – no. Only working out the right way and eating the right food and supplements will maximize the maximum.

• Doing the chest exercises more than twice a week. Wrong. Every muscle needs to rest ( approx. 48 hours and after that it starts to grow! ). If you will do too much bench it can even go down not up.

• Do not compete with your friends at gym.. Sometimes it is interesting but you should not do that, because if someone can lift more than you – you can try too hard making some mistakes in your way and ending up with injuries.

• Wrong warm-up. You should do a full body warm-up + a warm up set with the bar.. light weight, slow motion.. all as it should be.

• Do not hold your hands too close! Always hold your hands on the grip and try to hold them closer to those no-grip O areas.

• Shaking on the bench. Stay hard as steel! You are not some kind of techno dancer! You are an athlete so act as one!

Stanozolol, commonly sold under the name Winstrol (oral) and Winstrol Depot (intra-muscular). Winstrol is the most popular anabolic steroid used when it comes to cutting cycles. There are other popular ”cutting steroids” too – dianabol and anadrol for example. Winstrol is for nothing else than cutting cycles, it barely (or not at all) ads mass, it adds some strength but comparing with other anabolic steroids it’s almost nothing. I think no one will try to use winstrol in bulking cycle (alone)… there are other steroids out there that does that better!

But some people use winstrol in bulking cycle… not to bulk up, but to lower SHBG, one if winstrols properties are lowering SHBG but you need to use a very limited dose if you are trying to do this in a bulking cycle. In fact – winstrol is the best what you can get when it comes to lowering the SHBG! A dose of 2mg/kg lowers SHBG significantly and because of that the amount of free testosterone circulating in body increases. The same as 99% of other steroids – the suppression level of natural steroids will occur (perhaps not so much as other steroids). So when you are running any testosterone supplement (for example testosterone cycle with winstrol) is warranted to avoid sexual dysfunction.

Winstrol/Stanozolol side effects
Stanozolol is 17aa compound, this means that it´s been altered to endure the first pass through your liver without being destroyed. So this means that stanozolol is orally active compound and you can take pills instead of doing needles (of course needles will be less harmful and more effective than orally taken stanozolol!). Pills are available as well from Underground Labs as from legitimate pharmaceutical companies (the last ones requires prescription though). Stanozolol is very liver-toxic because it is a 17aa substance, in fact stanozolol has one of the worst hepatoxicity (mg for mg) of any steroid. This makes stanozolol to be so hard to combine witn bulking cycle – the dosage will rise so as the damage to liver. Stanozolol has undesirable results on cholesterol too. Many people take stanozolol only pre-summer to make that tight beach look. Stanozolol should be limited to six weeks of use, but many people run it for 12 weeks without any problems.

Effects of using Winstrol/Stanozolol

As said before, stanozolol is a cutting anabolic steroid – so the results are – dryer look. Of course there are some bad effects too – some people report ”dry” joints. Athletes in explosive or high impact sports should stay away from this drug, because it weakens tendons (this could lead to possible injury). But this is individual – some can suffer from ”dry joints” some not. Stanozolol is an unique compound – available in oral (winstrol) form and in injectable (winstrol depot) form. Both forms contain the same amount of compound. Injecting it has the advantage because you can avoid the ”first pass” through liver which is the most toxic part for liver.

Winstrol profile (Stanozolol)

[17beta-Hydroxy-17-methyl-5alpha-androstano[3,2-c]pyrazole]
Molecular Weight: 344.5392
Molecular Formula: C22H36N2O
Melting Point:N/A
Manufacturer: (Originally) Sterling
Effective Dose(men): 50-100mgs/day
Effective Dose (women): 2.5-10mgs/day
Active Life: 8 hours
Detection Time: 3 weeks (oral) to 9 weeks (injectable)
Androgenic/Anabolic Ratio:30:320

Anabolic steroids and growth hormone are very popular nowadays, but you should think again (and again and again) if you are considering to use them. Many bodybuilders and even casual everyday people use them to get in shape, to grow bigger and stronger, to follow some kind of idol, well that’s wrong – what else can I say. Steroids are illegal for reason you know… you need prescription to buy them in drug stores. But you can still get them in black market which is risky! Steroids and growth hormone is popular because you can reach your goal a lot faster AND you can go even further, look at those athletes in Mr. Olympia.

In sports steroids are illegal to use because of the advantages they give. But even then athletes are trying to find new ways how to gain strength, gain muscle, cut down fat and much more! They want to be successive by any costs.

Ok.. I’m too rough with steroids – steroids sometime are good guys too… Steroids are used for the treatment of different conditions such as AIDS, cancer and some more. Steroids promote body a natural strength and possibilities to fight diseases.

Like every drug, steroids have side effects and IF you want to use steroids you MUST consult your doctor before starting your steroids cycle (bulking up or gaining strength – that doesn’t matter really). Steroids can cause long term negative health consequences like:

• Liver damage – this is real and this is what will happen. Oral steroids cause the most damage to liver. But injectable steroids have other minuses… liver failure is the worst that can happen.
• Steroids increase the level of testosterone in body ( this is why they help to gain strength and build mass so ‘’easily’’ ) but the overproduction of testosterone can cause aggressiveness, low sex drive and low sperm count.
• Steroids increase water retention too; this leads to an anabolic state which is why athletes (especially bodybuilders) use them. But fluid retention increases workload on the heart, therefore blood pressure increases and this can be a serious problem and even cause of a heart attack.
• Finally all steroids change into estrogen and this is why steroids can cause your breasts grow larger (the first sign is soreness in nipples).

Growth hormone is as dangerous as steroids (if used improperly, of course). Growth hormones activate the components in body that cause the muscles to grow.

It’s possible to have large muscles, and a totally ripped body without using steroids or growth hormones. Sure, you will become bigger quicker, but introducing these substances into your body will have negative long-term effects.

Antioxidants are capable of slowing or preventing the oxidation of other molecules (free radicals) that can seriously damage our health. And the best sources of antioxidants are found in dark-colored fruits like berries and red grapes. You can eat them fresh or make juices – anything you want. If you enjoy fruit juices – make them, if you enjoy brutal eating of grapes – do it!

Not all of the antioxidants are the same. There are numerous types of them and each one dominates more or less in any fruit you eat. The same is with free radicals (the targets of antioxidants).

One thing how free radicals appear in our body is the environment around us (excess sunlight, smoking, pollution, even excess exercises) or the free radicals can be even made in your own body. So this all listed above means that we need to take antioxidants (good guys) all of our life just to fight the free radicals (the bad ones). But this is perfectly natural and we are partly doing it already. But is this enough? We have been getting the antioxidants for centuries by eating fruits and vegetables, not even knowing that they even exist!

There is always this ‘’but’’ - over the last years out, diets has changed and a lot of chemicals are added to our food (which is bad) just to make it fresh a bit longer and cost a bit less… junk food… We have been unaware of the lack of nutrition in our diets.

So this will be our fight with the free radicals! Lets help the antioxidants!

• In short partake of a balanced and natural diet.

Why we should do this?

• The nutrition we require in our food is present. Synthetic out, natural in.

• Maintaining balanced diet, exercise and stay positive. So take your life easy and keep cool socially, professionally and emotionally

If you will live healthy life, eat healthy food, exercise and smile, there is a chance that you will even get all of the antioxidants you need. But to be sure you can take some antioxidant supplements – they help!

Many of us use lifting gloves to ”aid” us in the workouts. Well, they don’t really aid, in fact they even can disturb your training process. I used lifting gloves for about two years and my conclusions about them are way so negative … In this article I will explain why I say so.

1)Gloves make the exercises even harder. The thicker the bar, the harder to grip it. Try to train with a ”fat” bar and you will understand what I’m talking about. Those lifting gloves adds a lot of thickness to bar. To illustrate everything more – try gluing your hands to bar and do some exercises where you need to pull weight bar downwards.

2)They are not even safe! In some exercises where weight is above your head (bench or military press, for example) you need to grip the bar very hard, but thicker bar is harder to grip, gloves adds some more thickness to bar – do we need that? No. Give those gloves to your grandma – surely she will need them for some garden work!

3)Lifting gloves prevent proper technique. The bar must be as close to your wrist as possible, and guess what – gloves prevent that! Then closer the bar to your wrist then more force is applied to it! What do we really want? Sweaty hands in gloves or power and technique?

4)Lifting gloves can cause eczema. Heavy sweating can cause eczema in your fingers.

5) Lifting gloves are not allowed on competitions. Don’t say to yourself  ”I’m not a powerlifter anyway…” If you aren’t a cook that doesn’t mean that you can’t make food for yourself! Build proper habits from the beginning and you won’t have to worry about anything after.

Ask yourself one question ”Why am I using lifting gloves?”  Be patient, you will grow stronger every workout! Your hands are sweaty? Use chalk… have you seen any lifter in Olympics using gloves? They use chalk. Think of it. PLUS lifting gloves cost money – better invest that money in some food or supplements.
What is your opinion about lifting gloves?