Large Lats

By Caleb Lee

People are impressed by big, ripped lats (short for Latissimus Dorsi, in case you were wondering if I paid attention in Latin class), especially those of us in the bodybuilding community. There are few sights, even at a bodybuilding competition which are more dramatic than when the contestants turn around to show off these impressively defined muscles ? there are often gasps of admiration from the crowd and a little applause.

Although not everyone wants to build competition quality lats, many of us wouldn?t mind at all having a little more definition from our back muscles. In this article, I?ll give you a few exercises to get you started.

Dumbbell Rows:

1. You will need a bench for this one. Hold a dumbbell in one hand, take your free hand and hold onto the bench for balance. You can also place your knee on the bench for extra support.

2. Your arm holding the dumbbell should be reaching all the way to the floor.

3. Keeping your elbow against your body, slowly raise the dumbbell up towards your side. Make sure your lats and your elbow do the work-don't let your bicep or the momentum of the weight interfere.

4. Pulling the weight up to your hip hold for a moment to get the most of the contraction, then slowly release to starting position.

5. Repeat this 10-12 times before switching to the other side.

You?ll need a cable pulley machine to do this next one ? if you don?t have one at home, try this one next time you hit the gym.

Front Pulldowns Close-Grip:

1. Grip the handlebar with both hands.

2. Pull the weight down towards your torso slowly while pushing your chest forward and slightly arching your back.

3. Try to use your elbows, not your biceps to pull the weight ? this is the key to this exercise.

4. Pull the handle down to your chin and hold for a moment, slowly releasing the weight and allowing your arms to go up along with the handlebar for a stretch.

5. Remember to work with your elbows, not the biceps. After all, we are talking lats and not biceps here! This is the greatest back builder as long as you work those elbows.

These will give you a good start in getting the powerhouse lats you want - or just to get more definition. The key here is to keep at it and you will succeed!

Until next time, see you in the gym!

About the Author:

author Caleb Lee can teach you a lot about building muscle. His website will teach you ways to build muscle fast.

Big Shoulder Exercises!

By Caleb Lee

Summertime is here. All bodybuilders want to develop their shoulders. Even those who don't consider themselves serious weight lifters, want bigger, stronger shoulders to fill out their shirts or just to look good on the beach!

Well, to help all of you out with this, I?ve provided a few shoulder exercises to try out which will soon have you on your way to bigger, stronger, more defined shoulders.

Basically there are two kinds of shoulder exercises - raises and shoulder presses. This article I am covering presses. Raises are coming in the future, so keep checking back! Presses are great shoulder exercises, mainly targeting the triceps, but they do involve other muscles as well.

Military Press:

This exercise can be done while standing ? though for beginners, I?d recommend starting out with seated military presses, on a bench with good back support.

Sitting or standing, use an overhand grip to grasp barbell. Hold it at shoulder height; hands slightly farther apart than your shoulders. Slowly raise the barbell up until your arms are as far up as they can go without straining. Slowly lower the dumbbell to shoulder height and repeat.

Seated Dumbbell Press:

This is similar to the Military Press except you will be using dumbbells. This mainly targets the front and side deltoids so consider mixing it in with other press exercises.

This exercise will also train your sense of balance, but remember to start this one off with a little less weight than you would normally use.

Sit on your bench with a dumbbell in both hands. Hold the dumbbells at shoulder height with your palms facing outward. Again, you are going to press the dumbbells slowly up until your arms are locked out. Slowly return the dumbbells to shoulder height and then repeat.

These are a couple the many presses you can do to build stronger, bigger shoulders. Hopefully these will cause you to seek out other press exercises. Until next time, maybe I'll see you at the gym!Of course, I will be adding more in my writings at a later date. Keep working out and I'll see you soon at the gym!

About the Author:

About the author: Caleb Lee knows a lot about building muscle. His website will sways you ways to build muscle fast.