Keeping Fit is A Daily Battle

Seated Cable Rows are great for the lats muscles, and it also exercises the trapezius, rhomboids and rear deltoids. It will give you wider lats if done correctly, but may result to lower back pain if not done correctly.

Below are the steps on proper way of doing seated cable rows:

1. Sit at the pulley row machine. Anchor your feet against the foot platforms, with your knees slightly bent.
2. Keep your back straight, lean forward slightly and grasp the handles with a narrow grip.
3. Pull the handles high toward your chest, keeping your spine straight. Your elbows should point behind you. Don’t lock your knees.
4. Hold for a second, then return to the starting position.

To target more on the trapezius, pull the handles or bar through a high trajectory towards the middle chest; a low trajectory toward the abdomen works more on the latissimus dorsi.

Remember to keep your back straight and torso upright, to prevent injury to your lower back and you are contracting the right muscles (lats and traps). Squeeze the shoulder blades together to maximize muscle contraction.

Below is a video demonstrating the proper execution of seated cable row:

Seated leg raise gives an overall workout for the abs. It exercises the both the main abs muscles (rectus abdominis) and the obliques - the abs muscles that passes obliquely downward from the rib cage to the pelvic bone. The obliques are also known as “love handles” to those of us who have packed a few pounds around the middle.

The rectus abdominis is only one large muscle, but can be described to consist of upper and lower abs. As the crunch or sit-up primarily exercises your upper abs, seated leg raise is great for exercising primarily the lower part of the abs. Seated leg raise also workouts secondarily your butt and hip flexors.

Proper Execution of Seated Leg Raise:

1. Keeping your knees slightly bent, extend your legs and raise them a few inches off the floor.

2. While bringing your body to an upright position, slowly pull your knees in to your chest as far as you can without losing your balance.

3. Hold for a second, then simultaneously return your upper body and legs to the starting position, keeping your back straight as you go.

A video speaks a “trillion” words Below is a workout video by Bodybuilder Frank Sepe, demonstrating how to properly do the seated leg raise.

Lat is short term for “Latissimus dorsi”, the primary upper back muscle which gives a V shape look for our trunk, and makes our waist look smaller. Our back muscles enable us to pull with power, or grab something heavy from the ground, like a heavy baggage for example.

Lat pulldown is a great upper back exercise, but I advise against pulling down behind your head. I see sometimes guys in the gym pulling behind the head; it could lead to shoulder injuries and should be avoided.

This exercise also works your rhomboids, which lie between your spine and your shoulder blades. Don’t overdo the amount of weight.

As always, a workout video showing the exercise, provides a better grasp of the workout instructions. Below is a video of bodybuilder Frank Sepe demonstrating the correct form of doing lat pulldown.

Muscles Involved:
Primary: Latissimus dorsi (outer section).
Secondary: Rear deltoid, lower trapezius, rhomboids.

Proper Lat Pulldown Execution:

1. Sit at a lat pulldown station. Grasp the bar overhead, placing your hands shoulder-width or farther apart. Your palms should face away from your body. Keep your upper body straight and your eyes forward.

2. Slowly pull the bar down in front of your head until it reaches the top of your shoulders and touching your upper chest, keeping your upper body fairly upright throughout the movement. Hold for a second, then slowly return your arms in the starting position.

Preacher Curls are great for isolating biceps and concentrating on them. It is called a ‘preacher’ curl since the slant board resembles a preacher podium. Instead of standing in-front giving a sermon, you will be sitting behind it and curling your arms with weights on it to focus on your biceps.

As always, it is better to see in a workout video how it is done. A video speaks a “trillion” words! Bodybuilder Frank Sepe demonstrates below how to properly do Preacher Curls.

Proper Way of Execution:

1. Sit with your upper arms resting on the preacher bench, and take a shoulder-width underhand grip on the bar with arms out straight.

2. Curl the bar up toward your shoulders.

3. Lower the weight back down to the arms’ extended position.

Dumbbell Fly develops the chest pectoral muscles. This exercise also works your shoulder adductors, from your chest to inner arm, and flexors, across the front of your shoulders.

Proper Form:

1. Lie on your back on a bench with your legs parted and your feet firmly on the floor. Hold two dumbbells above you, your palms facing each other.

The dumbbells should nearly touch each other above your chest. Your back should be straight and firm against the bench. Don’t lock your elbows.

2. Slowly lower the dumbbells out and away from each other in a semicircular motion to chest level. Keep your wrists locked, your elbows bent at roughly 90 degrees. Hold for a second, then slowly raise the dumbbells to the starting position.

It always helps to see in a video for better grasp of the instructions. Bodybuilder Frank Sepe demonstrates below on a workout video the proper form of doing dumbbell fly.

Dumbbell Fly Variation Tip: Try the Open-hand Fly. As you lower the weight, open your hands so the weights are balanced in your palms. Opening your hands places more emphasis on your inner chest muscles, with less emphasis on the anterior deltoid.

Let’s set one thing straight: exercising only your abs won’t rid you of your “love handles”. You will need a combined aerobic and abs strength routine to do that, in addition to nutritional diet. This is discussed in Building Abs Fast. Treat your abdominal muscles like your biceps, don’t overdo the reps, but concentrate on strengthening the abs and do regular high-intensity aerobic exercises.

There is a common misconception that there are upper and lower abs muscles. But the rectus abdominis is actually one large muscle. You can, however, choose exercises that mostly train the upper or lower area of the one muscle. For example, this crunch - abs on incline bench - work your upper abs at 90 to 100 per cent, while pelvic lifts work them at only about 30 percent. If targeting the lower abs, however, those figures are approximately reversed.

Proper form of Doing Abs on Slant Board:

1. Hook your feet under the pad and sit on the slant bench with your torso upright.

2. Lower your torso backward until it is almost parallel to the floor. This would mean about 3/4 down; don’t go full down lying on the incline bench.

3. Return to the upright position by bending at the waist. Concentrate to target on your abs muscles.

Bodybuilder Frank Sepe demonstrates in workout video how to properly do Abs on the slant board.

Today we’re going to focus on one of the most popular Legs exercise - lying leg curls.

Lying Leg Curl exercises primarily the hamstrings. The hamstrings, located behind the thigh, are a group of 3 muscles that originate from the ischium bone of the pelvis. (See illustration below). The hamstring muscles are biceps femoris (outer aspect of the thigh), semimembranosus (behind the inner aspect) and semitendinosus (behind the inner aspect of the thigh adjacent to semimembranosus).

Proper Execution:

1. Lie facedown on a leg curl machine with your ankles hooked behind the lifting pads and your knees just over the bench’s edge. Hold on to the machine’s handlebars for support.

2. Keeping your pelvis flush against the bench, slowly raise your heels toward your butt so that your legs bend to about a 90-degree angel.

3. Hold for a second, then slowly lower your heels to the starting position.

Note: Some leg curl machines are bent slightly at the end to relieve pressure from your pelvis. If yours is not, put a small pillow under your pelvis.

Bodybuilder Frank Sepe demonstrates in workout video how to properly do Lying Leg Curls.