Handsome male torso using dumbbells. How to develop a beautiful triangular torso

It is not news that a sculpted torso is an indicator of an individual’s excellent physical condition. Today, the most popular way to develop an athletic physique is visiting the gym + consulting a personal trainer. However, many people underestimate push-ups as an effective way to get beautiful chest relief. Let's look at the main types of push-ups, which, if performed regularly, will allow you to form a beautiful torso.

Jumping push-ups

These push-ups are performed using two small supports fifteen to thirty centimeters high. Starting position – hands on push-up supports. With your elbows slightly bent, push yourself out to “jump” off the supports and land between them. After this, immediately lower your chest to the floor and from this lowest point jerk back to the starting position (“jump” onto the supports).

Effect. Jumping push-ups are an excellent tool for developing so-called explosive strength and training the vestibular system. The main task when performing them is to maintain the integrity of the exercise without dividing it into phases (jumped-rested, jumped-rested).

Wide push-ups

Another popular push-up technique, which, due to the non-standard positioning of the hands in a prone position, can significantly increase the load on the external pectoral muscles. Starting position: arms are placed as wide as possible with hands outward. When performing push-ups, you should go as low as possible to stretch the pectoral muscles as much as possible.

Narrow push-ups

The opposite of the type of push-ups described above. How to properly do push-ups from the floor with a narrow emphasis? Starting position: hands brought together, thumbs touching each other, arms straight. Make sure that your head is a continuation of your spine and that your stomach does not sag (to do this, keep your abdominal muscles in constant tension). From a similar position, lower yourself as far as possible and jerk yourself back to the starting position.

Effect. Push-ups with a narrow hand rest allow you to effectively work the inner part of the pectoral muscles.

Incline push-ups

The benefit of incline push-ups is to create an effective emphasis on certain parts of the pectoral muscles. Consider two types of incline push-ups: head up and head down. In the first case, we shift the load to the lower half of the chest, in the second, respectively, to the upper part of the pectoral muscles.

For incline push-ups, you need to use a bench: when approaching with your head up, place it a short distance from the wall and, looking at the ceiling, try to touch your torso to the bench. When doing inclined push-ups with your head down, for a more comfortable process, move your hands in the starting position slightly above shoulder level.

Plyometric push-ups

The technique for performing such push-ups on the floor is as follows. From the standard starting position, you need to jerk off the floor so that your hands are also in the air. When you land, drop slightly to the floor again and pull yourself up. “Level-up” for this type of push-ups: clap your palms and straighten your arms as an extension of the body at the top point.

Effect. Plyometric push-ups are an effective way to develop strength. This push-up technique allows you to increase the overall tone of the physiological system and involve a larger number of muscle fibers in the work.

Knee push-ups

To perform these push-ups comfortably, use a mat or pillow. Place the attribute under your knees and begin standard push-ups from the starting position. It is important to ensure that your head and knees always form one line.

Effect. Push-ups on the knees should be used in cases where there is no longer enough strength for standard push-ups, and the desire to “hammer” the muscles seems necessary.

Standard push-ups

Regular push-ups are the easiest way to keep your pectoral muscles toned at home. Correct push-ups from the floor look like this: lying on straight arms, hands slightly wider than shoulders, head forms one line with the spine, abdominal muscles are in static tension. At the bottom point, you should pause for a moment, and then push yourself up with a powerful jerk, tensing your pectoral muscles at the top point. It is not necessary to straighten your elbows completely, and in some cases it is undesirable (stress on the joints).

Effect. Regular push-ups have a general beneficial effect on the upper part, but the main effect of the exercise technique is on the middle part of the chest muscles.

One of the important signs by which women determine the strength and power of the man they like is a wide, muscular chest and good posture. This is why many guys at some point in their lives become interested in training methods. And first of all, they want to know how to pump up pectoral muscles, which can be done at home, because not all young people and men have the opportunity to go to the gym.

How to properly train with dumbbells at home to strengthen your chest?

WHERE SHOULD I START?

Anyone interested in how to pump up the pectoral muscles with dumbbells must first choose the right equipment, that is, a pair of dumbbells. In order for the training to really be useful, it must be quite heavy, but beginner athletes need to start with the weight that is most comfortable for them. Men's dumbbells, which can be purchased at sporting goods stores, are usually made for greater strength, so their weights start at 4 kg each. It is with such equipment that it is best for beginner men to practice.

According to experts, dumbbells of 4 kg each are just what you need to start with. As the muscles become stronger and more trained, the weight needs to be increased, but this must be done gradually. In order not to clutter your apartment with mountains, it is best to get dumbbells, the weight of which can be adjusted - add or remove “pancakes”, and exercise with benefit and pleasure.

In addition, it is important to choose and arrange the right place for training so that the training is comfortable and safe. Those who live on the ground floor are not so afraid of random shells falling on the floor, which cannot be said about residents of the upper floors, where the roar of a 4 kg shell falling on the floor will greatly frighten the neighbors below. Therefore, having chosen a place for training, you need to adapt it a little for training - for example, you need to put something soft on the floor, like a mat in a gym. The role of such a mat can be an old cotton blanket or feather bed folded in half or four.

LET'S EXERCISE RIGHT: BASIC EXERCISES

For those who are really interested in how to pump up the pectoral muscles with dumbbells, it is important to remember the basic set of exercises and perform them correctly and efficiently. Experts in the matter of forming a beautiful muscle corset and creating a beautiful one consider dumbbell raises in a lying position and a variety of presses to be the most effective exercises for the pectoral muscles. Let's look at the most popular and effective:

  1. Presses performed in a lying position - you need to lie on your back on 3-4 stools (or, if available, on a long bench), place your arms parallel to the floor at shoulder level and bend your elbows. Raise your arms with dumbbells up and return them back;
  2. Raising and lowering your arms – also lying on a bench or stools, you need to rest your feet well on the floor. Straight arms with dumbbells need to be raised up in front of the face (elbows can be slightly bent) and spread wide to the sides to shoulder level and brought back;
  3. Hold dumbbells - standing, feet shoulder-width apart. Take dumbbells in your hands, stretch your arms to the sides and hold for 1 minute, while a burning sensation should appear in the muscles;
  4. Raise your arms to the sides in an inclined position - place your feet shoulder-width apart, bend down to the floor, hands with dumbbells should face each other with your palms. Raise your arms to shoulder level and return to the starting position;
  5. Reduction and extension of arms in a sitting position - performed similarly to exercise No. 2, but while sitting, the arms at the elbows should be bent at an angle of 90 degrees, brought together in front of the chest and spread to the sides as far as possible.

These are basic exercises with dumbbells that will help make your pectoral muscles strong and attractively sculpted. You can supplement such workouts with exercises on parallel bars and push-ups.

WHEN TO EXERCISE AND HOW MANY TIMES TO REPEAT?

When training with dumbbells, experts recommend focusing not on the intensity of the exercises, but on the total volume of the training load. All exercises must be performed correctly and efficiently. Performing a properly designed chest workout is enough just twice a week.

As for the required number of approaches, this value is very individual and it depends on the general fitness of the person and on the condition of his muscles. For one, the optimal training option would be 4-5 approaches to each exercise, and for another – 12-15. The whole question is that the load needs to be gradually and constantly increased, otherwise the muscles will stop growing and will simply be maintained in good shape.

To get into shape, experts recommend that beginner athletes begin their training with two approaches, gradually increasing them to 4-5 repetitions, and then to the optimal number of 10-12 approaches. In this case, dumbbells should be taken with the smallest possible weight, that is, 4 kg, and gradually increase this weight - adding “pancakes” to the dumbbells or changing the apparatus with a larger weight.

HOW ELSE CAN YOU EXERCISE WITH DUMBBELLS?

In addition to training the pectoral muscles, biceps and triceps, dumbbells are also used in exercises to train the legs and buttocks. Thus, one of the very popular exercises in numerous programs used by bodybuilders is a variety of squats with dumbbells.

Dumbbell squats work several muscles, namely:

  • quadriceps;
  • adductor muscles of the thigh;
  • gluteus maximus muscle;
  • thigh biceps.

In addition to these muscles, although to a lesser extent, the muscles of the legs and upper shoulder girdle and chest are also involved.

The technique of performing squats with dumbbells is quite simple, but you need to do them correctly, otherwise you won’t be able to achieve quick and lasting results. So, you need to do squats with dumbbells as follows:

  1. First you need to stand up straight, straighten your shoulders, place your feet shoulder-width apart, with your feet parallel to each other, and your arms with dumbbells lowered along your body;
  2. Now you can start doing the squat. You need to lower down smoothly, your knees cannot be brought forward, and your body weight should be transferred to your heels when performing a squat. The buttocks should be directed back and down, as when trying to sit on a low chair;
  3. You need to squat until the angle of your knees is 90 degrees, after which you should rise to the starting position. There is no need to lower yourself in a squat.

Hands with dumbbells can be straightened forward when lowering into a squat and pressed towards you when lifting. In order to get quick results you need to practice daily. The weight of dumbbells also needs to be gradually increased.

A pumped up, powerful torso is an adornment for almost any man. And broad shoulders are an integral part of it. How to pump up broad shoulders?

Note that we are not talking about the genetic characteristics of the body structure, but rather about creating a good muscular foundation that visually makes. You can make your shoulders wider by increasing the girth of the chest, by having more massive deltas (deltoid muscles) and by counting the latissimus muscles backs. These are the main muscle groups that can give the torso a triangular appearance and visually make wider shoulders.

The deltoids are muscles that completely cover the shoulder joint and consist of three segments. Anterior, middle and posterior deltoids. The size of these muscles affects the width of the shoulders, but not very much, because it is not very large bundles of muscles. But due to its round shape, it visually gives the shoulders a wider, more massive look.

The lats are the base. Together with deltas back muscles visually greatly enlarge and “spread” the shoulders. Lat back muscles These are one of the largest muscles in the body and should be given enough attention during training. Since they are very large, progress is not immediately noticeable. And you need to have enough patience to do your best on back exercises from workout to workout. And one day the size of the shirts will indicate that either all the shirts have become smaller, or the back becomes wider.

An increase in the volume (size) of the chest can greatly “spread” the shoulders. Eat quite a lot of exercises, which allow you to enlarge the chest. One of the very effective exercises can be called “Pullover”. This exercise allows you to stretch very well. back muscles and accordingly create a greater amplitude of execution. This exercise also works the abdominal and chest muscles very well. When performing a pullover, you do not need to work with very heavy weights. The load must be adequate. Those. the muscles should be under tension, but it should be possible to stretch them as much as possible. Only in this case can a pullover have maximum effect.

Combinations of exercises to create broad shoulders so many. In this matter, the individual capabilities of the body should be taken into account. For getting broad shoulders It’s not enough to just mindlessly perform pull-ups, all kinds of rows and various arm swings. You need a balanced training program. Only a professional instructor can create such a program. He will immediately tell you exactly what level of load will be optimal, monitor the correctness of the exercises and give the necessary recommendations to achieve the best results.

In this matter, you should not be guided by the advice of friends, acquaintances, and especially the Internet. The fact is that the individuality of the body dictates its own individual regimen and method of training. And incorrect loads can lead to poor results at high costs or even cause harm.

A competent training plan, an experienced instructor, a balanced diet and adequate rest can provide wide, powerful shoulders for enough short period of time.

A girl likes nothing more than a chic, toned torso. To be honest, I have no idea why girls love large pectoral muscles and square bellies so much. If you wish, of course, you can dig deeper, interview some ethologists who will tell us that the squares are an indicator of a well-developed body, a minimum of fat, and the fact that the male will be able to catch up and kill the prey in order to bring it to the cave. But I won't do this. In addition, a beautiful body is in some way an indicator that you take care of yourself, and your willpower deserves attention. However, you probably already understand why everyone wants to make themselves a chic torso. Today we will tell you about it.

1. Consume protein after workouts


Of course, it is advisable not to eat after a workout, but this does not apply to protein foods. You can eat a good piece of chicken, you can drink milk (if you are losing weight, I don’t recommend it), but it’s better to drink pure protein in the form of a shake. A good dose of protein is essential to repair damaged muscle fibers after an intense workout. Plus, it greatly boosts your metabolism. And a high metabolism always means that the amount of fat in your body will rapidly decrease. It is best to drink a mixture of proteins after training with supplements of creatine, taurine, essential amino acids and crystalline threonine. Often such cans can be purchased at specialized sports nutrition stores.

2. Do exercises in a bent position


Never forget that regular exercises for different muscle groups in your abs, thighs, buttocks and lower back can be better developed when done at different angles. The standard French dumbbell bench press can be greatly complicated by placing the bench at an incline. The same can be said about many other abdominal exercise groups. Incline crunches will give you more opportunities to really increase your load on your abdominal muscles. This will also help you pump up your internal muscles, which will come into play one way or another while performing the load. For more or less pumped up dudes, we recommend abdominal exercises on the wall bars with your head down.

3. Destabilize yourself


Don't be afraid of fitballs. They are vital for those dudes who need to pump up their abdominal muscles. Oblique, rectus, perpendicular muscles, all sorts of different tendons - an unusual suspended position on a fitball will help you pump them all up. By the way, internal muscles can and should also be pumped up in football. It somehow makes everything better, especially if you do it right.

4. Eliminate fried, processed and refined foods


The abs and ABS muscles (as American jocks call everything that relates to the abs, lower back, buttocks and hips) can be pumped up, but they still won’t be particularly visible, since you have quite a lot of fat in the wrong place. Therefore, the best way to define your abs is to watch your diet. If you cut out all the processed foods, it's hard to keep track of everything that's inside them. These are sausages, purchased semi-finished products and other processed meat products. Completely eliminate refined sugar from your food - you don't need it. In general, giving up tea with sugar is a bad habit. These foods cause an increase in blood glucose, which increases the amount of fat stored.

5. Increase the speed on your trainer


Turn up the speed on your treadmill, so you can burn fat much faster. Accelerated training for some time (ideally several hours) after strength training will significantly increase your fat burning. Remember that fat loss depends on how well you burn calories. Increasing your cardio will help you with this.

6. Reduce stress


This advice has nothing to do with fitness, as you think, but in fact it has a big impact on the situation. The fact is that stress can reduce the benefits of your workouts. When you are very stressed, your body actively produces the hormone cortisol, which will encourage your body to store fat reserves. Overcome your stress and life will get better.

7. Do a full body workout.


Instead of pumping up individual muscle groups, switch your attention to the complex development of your body. Complex training evenly develops all the muscles of the body, stimulates more muscle fibers, which means that the number of calories burned increases exponentially. It's a good idea to break up your workouts for each muscle group throughout the week. This will help you lose fat in large quantities while increasing muscle mass evenly. You have to swing wisely!

8. Sleep more


Another piece of advice you know about, but most likely don’t follow. Need more sleep. You need to sleep enough: if you don't sleep as much as you need, your metabolism slows down. But the amount of cortisol increases, which stores all sorts of crap for you. By the way, when you sleep enough, you want to eat less.

9. Reduce your beer consumption


If you can't switch from beer to drinks with lower carbohydrate content, at least reduce your consumption of beer. Not only does beer contain plenty of carbohydrates, but it also contains alcohol, which increases the digestibility of beer. If you can't give up alcohol, choose a lower-calorie option. Use water instead of tonic.

10. Eat more omega fats


Of course, you know that fish contains them in abundance. If you don't have a regular supply of walnuts, salmon or tuna liver in your diet, just add fish oil.

What guy doesn't want wide shoulders and a narrow waist? Pay attention to some nuances in your training to get that desired V-shaped athlete's torso and look more powerful even if genetically you do not have a wide shoulder girdle.

The look of massive shoulders tapering to a narrow waist makes bodybuilders stand out from the rest of the crowd. But that V-shaped torso is not the result of training just one muscle group.

To do this, you must train several muscle groups in the upper body and also work on the abdominal muscles. If you have a lot of fat around your waist, you may have to do cardio and a strict diet, or your "V" shape will resemble a "U" shape.

By tweaking your existing workouts, you can place more emphasis on those muscle groups that will make you stronger and wider from the waist to the shoulder girdle.

1. Make your shoulders wider.

Of the three deltoids - front, middle and back - the middle deltoids are the ones that give your shoulders the most width. By focusing on your middle deltoids, you can see faster results in your expansion.

Bench presses, overhead dumbbell presses, or vertical rows with a barbell and dumbbells to the chin, when the elbows go up and to the sides, work great for developing the entire shoulder girdle, but when you need to increase the volume of the middle deltoids, then not all “shoulder” presses work on them with the same share of the load.

Your task is to monitor how the shoulder muscles work. When you press dumbbells overhead, your elbows and forearms are spread out to the sides, and your arms go up in a “lateral” range. In this option, the middle beam gets a good reduction.

When you perform an Arnold press or a barbell press with the bar in front of you, your forearms are moved slightly forward rather than going straight through the “lateral” range. This small change in the movement vector removes some of the load from the middle beam, transferring it to the front.

The main thing here is not to make a mistake - an excellent exercise for developing the shoulders in general, but the dumbbell press has a “lateral” amplitude and is better aimed at the middle deltoids.

Likewise, any machine press in which your forearms and elbows are spread out to the sides will also do an effective job of hitting the middle deltoids.

What applies to presses also works for vertical rows. If you grab the barbell with a narrower grip, you will shift the load to the front deltoids; if you grip the barbell with a wider grip, the load will fall on the middle bunch.

What are the main functions of the shoulder - stabilizing the movements of the upper limbs while increasing the amplitude of their movements.

Simply put, the biomechanics of the shoulder joint allows you to move your arms in several projections at a wide angle and at the same time ensure strong attachment of a freely movable element (shoulder) to a conditionally movable element (scapula).

But quite simply, the shoulder rises and falls during multi-joint shoulder exercises. The same rule applies to isolated movements, such as dumbbell lateral raises, standing, sitting, so to effectively target the middle delts with isolated raises, watch the movement of your arms. They should only move in a “lateral” range of motion. Of course, you can move your arms out from behind your back or in front of you, but these are all nuances of working out from different angles, and this also takes place when you have already developed a decent mass of deltoids.

To focus the load more on the middle bands, add more than one isolated movement to your shoulder workout, such as dumbbell lateral raises, lat pulldowns, or lateral dumbbell raises while lying sideways on a positive incline bench.

You can also use training methods like forced reps or drop sets to generate a greater degree of muscle burn and increase mid-delt growth.

2. Pay attention to the development of the latissimus muscles.

Now we move from the middle deltoids to the well-developed latissimus muscles. They will also help you acquire a V-shaped body. Of course, back training includes several muscle groups (rhomboids, middle and lower back, trapezius and rear deltoids), but to create a V-shape, it is best to focus on developing the latissimus muscles.

In general, back training can be divided into two parts: movements such as pull-ups and rows, which are performed in a more or less vertical plane, and rowing movements, in which you pull almost perpendicular to your body.

Vertical movements help increase the width of the back, while perpendicular (horizontal) rows increase the thickness of the mid-back.

If you currently do pulldowns with a close-grip handle, try replacing the handle with a wide handle. And unlike the close-grip row, where you pull the cable towards your stomach, with the wide-handle row, perform the wide-grip row to put the load specifically on the lats.

3. Train your abdominal muscles and reduce your body fat percentage.

It may not be an easy task to achieve your goal because abdominal exercises alone are not enough to tighten your waist. It will take special effort to not only watch what and how much you eat, but also to stay in a calorie deficit every day.

Follow a smart fat-burning strategy, track your results, and do abdominal resistance training (crunch machines, cable crunch machines, standing, sitting, kneeling, exercise ball training with weights, hanging leg raises with weights) plus In addition to this, it’s cardio exercises to burn more calories. But at the same time, you should prioritize maintaining muscle while you lose fat.

This is how you should go about developing your abs by training your rectus abdominis. Start with sessions of 3-4 exercises every other day, starting with the most difficult movement and maintaining rest periods of no more than 30-45 seconds between sets, up to 2 minutes between exercises.

Developing a better V-taper for your body requires a two-pronged approach where you build muscle in your upper torso and remove fat from your belly. I didn’t make a reservation, we are not talking about local burning of fat in the abdominal area, no. We are talking about massive shoulders, powerful lats and a thin waist, which in turn distinguishes an athlete from an ordinary person.