Strengthen Your Core and Elevate Your Heart Rate With This Cable Back Workout!

Back Workout

Lat Pulldown

The lat pulldown is a multi-joint exercise that involves main mover the latissimus dorsi, the largest back muscle, which extends down each side of your spine. The biceps, rear delts, rhomboids and traps are also syngistically during the pulldown exercise.

Close Grip Pulldown

Great exercise to target the primarily lats, the traps (middle and lower) and the biceps. Secondary, it uses the teres major, posterior deltoid and the pectoralis major. Many women are afraid to lift heavy for their upper body. However, developing your back create a v-taper making your waist appear smaller. It also increase your strength to later take on pull-ups and lift things easier around the house.

Squat Row

A compound total body exercise that trains the mid and lower back, legs and glutes while elevating the heart rate. Make sure to use your legs as you stand up with the close grip handle in front of your body with arms extended. Execute the exercise by squating down while keeping the arms extended, use you legs to stand up while bring the close grip handle close to your belly button. Squat back down with the arms extended to complete one rep and repeat!

Swimmers

Swimmers are a different variation to the Lying Back Extension (Superman). This exercise strengthens the core and stretches the lower back. Adding movement to it elevates the heart rate. This exercise can be done in repetitions or timed.

To build muscle: increase weight and lower reps to 8-10.

To tone up: lower weight and increase reps to 12-15.

EZ Bar Curls

The angle of the EZ curl bar allows your wrists, forearms and elbows in a more comfortable, natural and safe position, as a result reducing the risk of common injuries that many people develop over time from curling with a straight bar This will be your starting position: Stand up straight while holding an EZ curl bar at the wide outer handle. Keep your elbows close to your torso. Keep your upper arms stationary, exhale and curl the weights upward while contracting the biceps. Raise the weight until your biceps are fully contracted and the bar is at shoulder level. Hold the top contracted position for a moment and squeeze the biceps. Then inhale and slowly lower the bar back to the starting position. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

Muscle building Chest and Back Workout

Chest

3 - 4 Sets

Chest press machine

8 - 10 reps (heavy weight)

Incline dumbbell chest press

10 - 12 reps (medium weight)

Fly machine

12 - 15 reps (light - medium weight)

Dips

8 - 12 reps (body weight)

Back

3 - 4 sets

Lat Pulldown
10 - 12 reps

Reverse-grip lat pull up

10 - 12 reps

Bent-over dumbbell row

8 - 10 reps (heavy weight)

Back Extension (Floor)
3 - 4 sets
30 seconds - 1 min.

Unstable/Stable Chest and Back Superset Workout

Chest and Back Supersets:

3 - 4 Sets

Body Weight Exercises: 15 - 20 reps

Weighted Exercises: 10 - 12 reps

Push-ups

Lat Pulldown

Incline push-ups

Bent-over barbell row (over-hand grip)

Decline push-ups

Straight-arm pulldown

Diamond push-up

Back extension (floor)

Bicep Workout With Balance

Bosu Barbell Curls

Barbell Curl is the standard exercise for building strength and mass in the biceps. Adding a bosu makes it also include core and balance strengthening. It also helps avoid using your upper body to lift the weight making the exercise a lot more difficult than the standard. Make sure to keep your core tight as you balance on the bosu and lift the barbell up and down.

Swiss Ball One Arm Preacher Curl

One arm preacher curls is great to target the brachialis, which is the lower part of your bicep. However, adding a Swiss ball will make the exercise more difficult and add some core stabilization which will burn more calories. Make sure when executing this exercise you keep your core tight at all times so that you don't lose control of the ball. Place one of your arms on the ball with the back of the arm against the Swiss ball with dumbbell. Use the other arm as support or place around the front of the Swiss ball. Slowly, lower your arm with the dumbbell to about 90 degrees and curl it back to starting position. You don't want to go beyond this because you can hyper extend your shoulder which can lead to future injury. Repeat on the other arm.

Swiss Ball Dumbbell Lateral Side Curls

Great way to train the long head of the biceps with stabilization. Sit on the Swiss ball and keep your core engaged at all times. Grab your dumbbells and place your arms outside of your thighs with hands facing up. Lift the dumbbells up towards your the side of your shoulders and slowly bring them back to starting position.

Side Ups

A great way to train your obliques and strengthen your core. Keeping the reps to 15 will ensure that you will have a small waist instead of wide. Keep core training to only 3 times a week. Training your core everyday and adding too much weight to your obliques will only keep your waist wide because you won't allow it to rest and will make you oblique muscles grow. Each muscle ground needs at least 24 hours of rest.

People Who Say Training is Too Expensive Buy an iPhone X

Image credits: Mac Rumors

Being in the industry for about 11 years now, I always find it outstanding and highly hypocritical when people tell me that they have no time for training or it is too expensive to afford a trainer. However, when the newest game console or the newest smart phone comes out they are more than willing to camp out for days and spend $1,000 for a item that they can't afford when they are on a "fixed income". 

Having the latest technology is great, but how does it help with your health? The older phones do the same things as the older smart phones. The only difference is the speed and the ridiculous cost. All a game console will do is keep you inactive. The cost of an iPhone can at least get you about 24 sessions of personal training depending on where you go. If you are willing to camp out for a phone, then you can make time to train and work on your health. With those sessions you can lose 24 - 36 lbs. in weight (2 - 3 lbs. a week), along with following a proper nutrition plan and cardiovascular training.

Now, results depends on how much you listen and follow the program and how much your trainer wants you to get there. I always try to get updates from my clients weekly or bi-weekly to keep them on track. A client of mine recently found out how bad a cheat weekend was. She hung out with a childhood friend, had decadent food, drank mimosas and even though she did yoga (which only burns 130 calories per hour which equals a mismosa), she gained 6 lbs. That whole week that she trained with me (2 days a week) and did her other fitness activities were ruined with that one weekend. 

For general health, weight-loss and toning up the average person only needs at least 2 - 3 days of weight training and cardio. 80% is what you eat so you HAVE TO BE MINDFUL OF WHAT YOU EAT! You can also eat too much healthy food WHICH WILL KEEP YOU FROM LOSING WEIGHT. You have to make a deficit by eating only small serving sizes and physical fitness activities. If you know you can not do this by yourself then, get help with a great local trainer or contact me.