Training

More in Training

This video with [Sara Hallebrant](Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahallebrant/ ) is all about upper body training. Sara is competing in the Wellness Fitness division and during her current off-season, she is working to build more muscle and a physique that matches with her current competition plans.

_"I want to grow everything and achieve as much gains as I can during my off-season."

Despite Sara's offseason, she is still eating clean and tries to maintain some balance in her life, for her this means that she can eat something outside her planned food schedule as well.

_"You can have balance, eat good healthy food, and get results at the gym. I think it's important to have a balanced lifestyle."

Sara trains her upper body twice a week and its all about high reps during her workout, around 10-20 reps.

 That's why Sara's upper body workouts are more intense.

_"I think that it's important to have a lot muscle mass on the back and shoulders but my lower body should always be bigger, so that's why I train my upper body much lighter and do more high reps."

Upper Body With Wellness Fitness Athlete Sara Hallebrant

The mission is to keep tissue and get gnarly shredded!

Hunter Labrada and Bryan Troianello spell out the process when dieting and how to get as fat free as possible without sacrificing muscle tissue built in the offseason.

_"What put the tissue on will keep the tissue on."

Hunter and Bryan believe in NOT changing up too many variables and backing off of the volume and prioritizing energy for the compound lifts that require quite a bit more muscle recruitment and mental grit to execute.

_"For this push session we prioritize the incline press, shoulder press and dips and then follow up with laterals and flys when we need to just push through on the single joint movements."

In this video Hunter was just over 2 weeks out and by the time of publishing it is 2 weeks out from the Tampa Pro which will be his pro debut and a victory just to be able to make it to the stage in what has been an absolutely roller coaster ride of an offseason and year!

Stay tuned as we head to Houston one more time and then travel to Tampa and handle business!

Hunter Labrada 2 Weeks Out From Pro Bodybuilding Debut

 upper chest, shoulder, and triceps workout. Since she is competing in Body Fitness, it's very important to show a well-shaped x-frame and that's why Jackie's main focus is her shoulder workout.

"Shoulders are the main focus that I'm trying to evolve and I hit shoulders at least twice a week."

Jackie is starting with incline dumbbell presses with 45 degrees angle to target the upper chest and shoulders and she is going for the heavier weights in this exercise with only 3-5 reps.

The next exercise, strict barbell press is all about focusing on her delts. Jackie is going for a full range of motion and trying to go as deep as possible.

"When you do a full range of motion, it's going to feel a lot tougher"

 and that's why she doesn't have any weights on the barbell.

Jackie is always doing around 4 sets in every exercise and in the end of her workout she lowers to 3 sets per exercise. All press exercises are great to build round, proper shoulders and shoulder barbell press is activating all three (front, side, rear delts) heads, and it is by many considered the important shoulder movement to develop shoulders and build muscles.

Lateral raises are up next and here Jackie is using cable instead of a dumbbell.

"It's much tougher to train side delts in the cable since you get more tension through the whole movement cable".

 Another important thing Jackie is mentioning is that you have to let the elbow lead the movement.

Triceps is really important in Body Fitness as well since it's bigger than the biceps and it will give you more volume. That's why she is always including triceps in her upper chest/shoulder workout. Therefore Jackie is finishing off with 2 triceps exercises.

Incline Dumbell Press 4 SET x 3-5 REPS ( HEAVY)

Barbell Press Full Range Motion 4 SET x 12-15 REPS

Triceps Pull Down/Cable Pull - Superset!!

Upper Body Workout With Bodyfitness Athlete Jackie Masete

It's the modern aesthetic. Girls are wanting to have bigger butts and smaller waists and when you train to accentuate the shoulder to waist ratio, a smaller waist is what you get essentially.

Irina Post won her class at the ultra competitive Arnold Amateur in 2020 by virtue of a great v-taper among other things that are the criteria for a champion bikini body. Now she is preparing for another shot at her pro status at a national contest later this year.

In this video she explains her busy schedule and how she like to superset muscle groups, in this case shoulders and back, to expedite the training process to get in and out of the gym.

_"I like to train alone most of the time. When i superset exercises, I really get my sweat on and I can complete my workout in 45 minutes."

Assisted lat pull ups 3 sets x 10-15 reps

Single arm pull down superset with dumbbell pullovers 3 sets x 15 reps

Dumbbell row superset with single arm cable pull overs 3 sets x 12-15 reps

Front raise and lateral combo 3 sets x 12-15 reps

Upright row superset with T-bar rows 3 sets x 12-15 reps

Sexy V Taper - Back and Shoulder Training

 has a long background within weight training that goes about 17 years back in time. That's where he set his foundation for his knowledge within anatomy and his understanding for the functions of the human body.

In this video Robin is going through leg training and explaining part of his philosophy around how to add resistance when training legs. We get to see a little different execution of both new but also existing classic exercises which with minor adjustments will feel a lot more challenging than before. Robin goes through all movements thoroughly and explains the different functions and what actually happens during the movement.

"There is a million different kickback variants but common for them all is the technique."

Robin explains what's important to think about when it comes to correct execution to get the most out of each exercise and find contact with the muscles.

"When we train like this we don't always have to go to maximum failure in the exercise itself, there'll be automatic failure in the muscle we are training."

Robin says that training smart doesn't mean to cheat the weight up and don't perform the movements strict. It is all about "muscle connection" and it is important to find contact with the muscle and learn to manage the technique. Correct technique can be challenging in the beginning, but practice makes perfect! Keep doing it and it'll stick eventually

One Leg Hamstrings - 3 sets low weight 4-12 reps, 5 working sets 6-12 reps

Kickback Machine - 3 set low weight 10-15 reps, 5 working sets 12-20 reps

"Finnen"/ Nordic Hamstring - 3-5 set 1-6 reps, do not over-do this one

Sissy Squat variation 3-5 set 3-12 reps increase each set

Squats in Smith - 3 set low weight, increase the weight every set 2-5 reps, 3 working sets 8-12 reps

Train Smart with Robin Anzengruber

Nathalia Melo is pumped to be able to be in the gym with legit equipment and most of all "motivated people who are working hard and killing it."

Nothing beats an epic atmosphere where people eliminate excuses and limits and fear!

Here Nathalia went ham (no pun intended) on her leg training focusing more on quadriceps (thigh muscle) with 3 intense supersets.

3x 4x5 pumps Narrow Leg Smith Machine pump

Leg Day Motivation with Nathalia Melo

Glutes are the focus of a lot of women in the gym because, lets face it, they are a huge focus out of the gym. It is an innate human trait to be aesthetically drawn to physiques with a round and proportionate set of buns.

A tight set of glutes usually come with equally developed and aesthetic hamstrings and quadriceps which overall speaks volumes subconsciously of being athletic, strong, confident and sexy.

For Cherie, who is competing in the wellness division in 2020, its not all about glute development. "You still have to have the other leg muscles i.e the quads and hamstrings in proportion to the glutes as well as the shoulders, arms, back and a nice core to be competitive in the wellness division."

To accomplish well developed and balanced legs Cherie uses a wide variety of exercises.

"A lot of women who don't really know about the gym think that squats are the only and best way to build your legs. Change it up and use variety."

Build Powerful Glutes & Legs with Cherie

 is a 24 year old girl living in Stockholm, Sweden. She is originally from Örnsköldsvik and prior to relocating to Stockholm she lived in Umeå for 3 years where she studied to become a dietitian.

Training is one of Elin's biggest interests. Sports and training have always been parts of her life. During early years she played soccer and practiced several times per day, so her current training schedule and everyday life is not much different than that.

"I have exchanged the soccer for weight training."

Elin have been training with weights in the gym since she was 20 years old. Schedules doesn't exist for her when it comes to her workouts. The only thing she focuses on is to enter the gym and work as hard as she can every time.

She has never had a firm goal with her training but the past year her thoughts have started drifting towards competing.

"Some people enjoy reading books, I enjoy training hard in the gym."

Today we are joining Elin for a back workout.

Back Training with Elin Sellgren 

 is a 31 years old bodybuilding athlete from Sweden. He has been training since 2011 and his current goal is to win a gold medal at Swedish Championships 2021. He is also actively working to grow his own supplement company SSN Nutrition.

_"Typically I do one competition prep each year. I spend 8-14 weeks on a strict diet and the rest of the year I'm in off-season, taking time off and relaxing. Things doesn't have to be so strict during off-season."

In this video, Richard will guide you through one of his back workouts. When he works out he always put focus on training as hard as he can.

Warm-up: 2 sets pullovers with rope x 10-12 reps

T-bar row: 3-4 sets warm-up, 2 max sets with 80-100kg

Complete Back Workout 

Go heavy to grow your legs... IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE!

If you limit yourself to the common perspective in bodybuilding that says more weight is better for leg growth then it's a safe bet that your leg growth potential will never be realized.

In this leg training session at DESTINATION Dallas, IFBB Pro Bernardo Costa is partnering up with amateur bodybuilder Shane Post. Both are competitive bodybuilders actively preparing for competition in the latter part of 2020. Bernardo is 6'3" and Shane is 5'7". With vastly different structures and limb length the mission here is the same for both - to eliminate limiting factors in order to stimulate maximum muscle growth.

Bernardo and Shane are including classic exercises like hack squats, leg curls and leg extensions to get the most out of their leg workout.

Some concepts covered here that are important and may contribute to or halt leg muscle stimulation:

In this case Bernardo explains potentiation and how it optimizes the environment of your muscles in regards to electrolytes to be able to FULLY give 100% in your work sets. 

"If I didn't have the potentiation set then the actual work set would be considerably harder."

When you try to use too much weight too soon, you don't take advantage or even properly execute the whole movement which leads to a lot of imbalances and ultimately injuries and in turn NO growth.

Bernardo explains that a common cause of knee pain is tight calves. 

"When the calves are tight, they are shortened causing them to pull on the heel hence making you come up on your toes in the bottom of compound movements like the hack squat, which leads to the knee pain that is so common. Stretch out your calves before training."

Most people think they are working hard but usually they have a lot more to give. To get the most out of any training, reaching failure is a must on some of your working sets. That is when you know you give 100% when you physically cant get another rep by yourself.

Bernardo is preparing for the IFBB Battle of Texas and we are documenting his prep along with Courage Opara who is preparing for the same contest. Shane Post is preparing for the North American Championships where he will compete in both bodybuilding and classic physique for his professional status.

 for more training information and motivation!

Realize Your Leg Growth Potential

Where would we be without competition? In the bodybuilding world we would have never had Franco vs Arnold, Lee Labrada vs Lee Haney, Ronnie vs Jay or Phil vs Kai Green.

The point is that competition brings out the best in all of us. We all have an innate desire to beat the next guy and be left standing as the champion.

Bernardo Costa is making his classic physique pro debut at the Battle fo Texas this December. Courage Opara, an established pro with a top 3 in the Arnold Classic and 2 top 10 placings at the Olympia is planning on competing at the same event. They link up with us to document the whole competitive process.

Bernardo and Courage follow different training methodologies with OVERLOAD as the core principle. Here is their push workout (chest, shoulders and triceps).

Machine chest flys: 3 x 15 (not to failure)

Incline Dumbbell Press: 2 warm up and 3 x 10-12 reps

Hammer shoulder press: static weight - 3 x 10-15 reps

Dumbbell Laterals: 3 x 10-15 (last set is a drop set)

Video: Classic Battle - Bernardo Costa and Courage Opara

. Bernardo adopts a methodical approach to training i.e. form coupled with function before adding in the intensity. He turned pro at the 2019 NPC USA and is preparing for his pro debut here in 2020.

Check out Bernardo's Arm Training observations.

I’ve noticed a lot more growth on my arms when I started spreading my volume in my arms over more days of the week instead of only hitting them at the end of my push and pull sessions.

Instead of only doing biceps at the end of my pull sessions, and triceps at the end of

my push sessions. I began to incorporate biceps and triceps at the end of both my push and pull days. This was an idea that originated from 

When he programmed my training sessions and included AM/PM sessions. My biceps/triceps were being worked 4x a week instead of 2x a week. At first I thought I wouldn’t sufficiently recover from this, but in all reality my recovery was better. This was due to the fact that we were spreading the volume out more strategically instead of lumping it all together in just 2 sessions for each muscle a week. This allowed for each set and actual arm session I did

to become more productive. I wasn’t doing 3-4 bicep work outs back to back. Which probably eliminated a lot of junk volume.

Now I’ve currently backed off AM/PM training, but I’ve found my arms have responded equally to simply doing 1 bicep exercise, 1 Tricep exercise at the end of each push and pull day. Effectively doing arms 4x out of the week. But only building from 2-5 working sets on 1 exercise for each muscle as my mesocycle progressed. At the end of the mesocycle, at 4-5 sets per exercise I was still doing 16-20 working sets a week across 4 days. Which is equal to doing 8-10 sets of biceps and triceps 2x a week.

Instead of redundantly lumping movements for my arms, spreading it out made each movement I did more productive.