Industry news_News_Nantong Lixing Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

02-25 

Weight Lifting History

Weightlifting has a lengthy history. For many prehistoric tribes, the traditional test of manhood was the lifting of a special rock.

11-16 

10 Deadlift Variations to Light Up Your Legs and Butt

10-10 

Work Your Chest, Back, and Shoulders With This Upper-Body Barbell Workout

08-28 

8 BEST DUMBBELL EXERCISES FOR BUILDING A STRONG PHYSIQUE

8 BEST DUMBBELL EXERCISES FOR BUILDING A STRONG PHYSIQUE Dumbbell exercises are a fantastic way to train your whole body without needing a gym full of equipment. The freedom of movement you get with dumbbells allows you to train on a 3D plane of motion. Discover exercises from the ATHLEAN-X program that focus on the upper body, arms, chest, and back, but that also work your lower body and cardiovascular system. Plus, you don’t need a lot of room and can easily do these dumbbell workouts at home. 1. Curl and Press The first exercise is the curl and press. This compound exercise gives you both bicep and shoulder movement, resulting in both push and pull action. Consequently, as you progress through the move, you’re getting both a full contraction and extension of the bicep and engagement in the shoulders. This exercise needs two dumbells, with a weight that you can both curl and press above your head. However, remember that to build mass, you need to go heavy. Execution: Stand/Seat with your feet just wider than hip-width apart, back straight and core engaged. Hold one dumbell in each hand, arms down by your sides. Lift both weights in a bicep curl. Once you’ve reached the top of the curl, continue to press the weight up over your head. To come back down, lower the weight back to your shoulders, with control. Then back down from the curl to your sides. Sets: 2-3 Reps: 10-12 2. Goblet Squat Goblet squats are the next dumbbell exercise. To make sure you’re training like an athlete, and getting the most out of each activity, you’ll use a crush grip to elevate the exercise. Ordinarily, the upper body is passive in a goblet squat. However, a crush-grip engages your upper body, activating the chest, delts, traps, and core. Add this to the fact that goblet squats are already excellent for the glutes, quads, and hamstrings, and you’ve got full body activation. Finally, the goblet squats allow you to drop into your natural center of gravity, which is useful for anyone struggling with form. Execution: Start with your feet just wider than hip-width apart, toes pointed slightly out. Additionally, keep your core engaged, head up, and elbows tucked in. Unlike a regular goblet squat, you’ll hold the dumbbell in the middle. Interlace your fingers around the handle, and squeeze your hands together. This will force that upper body engagement. Keep your grip tight throughout the set. Bring yourself down into a squat until your knees are at 90-degrees. To check your form, make sure you bend at the hips, pushing your butt backward, but keeping the chest up. This, balanced with the weight, will allow you to find your natural center of gravity. Driving up through the floor, return to a standing position. Focus on bringing the weight back up in a straight line. Engage your core, moving your hips and chest as one unit. This will make sure you’re not accidentally swinging forward or backward. Sets: 2-3 Reps: 10-12 3. Dumbbell Pullover Also known as an upper-body squat, dumbbell pullovers are a fantastic way to work your upper body. It’s a flexible exercise that allows you to work either your back or your upper chest. The difference is minimal, with a slight change in elbow position and grip focus, making the variation between the two. As such, you could work both the chest and back, by changing the emphasis each set. For this exercise, you’ll only need one dumbbell. Execution: You’ll want to set yourself up with a box or bench that won’t move. Position your upper body across the bench, so you’re perpendicular. Your body weight should rest across your shoulders. Have your feet flat on the ground supporting the rest of your weight, with your knees bent at 90-degrees, and core flat and engaged. You should look like a tabletop. Regardless of wanting to work your chest or back, the mechanics of the movement are very similar. Hold the dumbbell above your body, with your arms straight out from your chest. Lower the weight back to behind your head, keeping your arms straight, but not locking your elbows. Bring the dumbbell back up, with control, to the starting position. To engage the back, as you raise the weight, focus on squeezing your hands together, and working them against each other as you lift. Keep your elbows tucked in. Alternatively, to work the upper back, allow your elbows to flare slightly, and lead with them, as you raise the weight up. Shifting the pull from your hands to your elbows will activate the lats. Sets: 2-3 Reps: 10-12 4. Farmers Walk For anyone who is “one trip or die trying” when it comes to getting groceries into the house, then Farmers’ Carries are the best practice. You’ll hold a dumbbell, as heavy as you can carry, in each hand, and simply walk. It sounds too easy but ends up being a full-body workout. Adding the movement in the lower body forces your core to engage and stabilize with each shift in weight. Plus, because you’re loading up on the weight, it ends up being mo

07-29 

The Full-Body Barbell Workout

The Full-Body Barbell Workout If you don’t have any machines on hand to help you with your workout – don’t despair. You can do the same exercises with free weights and most of them will turn out better for you like that anyway. As a matter of fact, all of these barbell exercises will let you build pounds upon pounds of muscles. FLOOR PRESS This exercise targets your chest. I would strongly suggest finding a power cage but if you can’t do that, getting a squat rack with modifiable safety arms or J-hooks set just a little bit under the barbell when your arms are locked out. To start, take the bar from the rack and lock it into position right above your sternum. Bring it closer to your chest slowly until your elbows meet the floor. After that, just push it into its locked position again and start another rep. Pair this exercise with one-arm barbell flyes as well as barbell pullovers from the floor. If you want to do it best, keep it slow. You definitely don’t want to overstress your elbows by jolting them so keep in mind that the range of motion available is very short. ONE-ARM BARBELL ROWS This exercise targets your back. To perform it, place the light end of the bar on something solid and put the weight on the other end of the bar. Then, move into position looking away from the corner while holding a staggered stance over the bar. Note that your forward leg shouldn’t be on your main side. If you’re a rightie, put your left leg forward and vice versa. Grab the heavy side of the bar so that your thumb is just below the plates. Also, to make sure you don’t experience too much stress on your lower back area, you can use your elbow as a support – lay your passive forearm down on your knee or a bench, and use it to keep yourself more stable. ZERCHER SQUAT To do this exercise correctly, keep your back straight and your torso vertical. Squeeze your posterior chain muscles such as your glutes, spinal erectors and hamstrings and then stand up with the barbell, making sure that your knees and hips are as extended as possible. The bar will tend to pull you forward when you go down into the squat, but you have to resist this. You can do that by letting your elbows go between your legs until the bar rests on your thigh muscles. Then, just switch the direction. When you finish every set, rest the bar on your thighs and change your grip to a narrow pronated deadlift grip. Put down the bar by hinging at the hips. CLOSE-GRIP BARBELL CURL To perform this move, keep your elbows locked in place by your sides with your upper arms static as well. Flex your biceps and raise the bar towards your shoulders. If you want to keep your active muscles under constant stress, stop with the movement when you reach a 45 degree angle with your upper arms. I would suggest pairing this exercise up with some wide-grip barbell curls and close-grip chin-ups. If this grip is too much for your wrists, get an EZ-bar. It will be better for your joints. FLOOR SKULLCRUSHER This exercise targets your triceps. To perform it, load a barbell with the appropriate weight and get on the floor, on your back, with the barbell just inches away from your dome. Raise up your arms, with your elbows pointing upwards and grab the barbell with an overhand grip, which means your palms should face upwards as well. Take the grip at shoulder width or a little less wide. If your wrists hurt or if you feel any discomfort in them while practicing this grip, get a cambered bar. BARBELL ROLLOUT This exercise targets the abs. If you haven’t done rollouts before, get on your knees and put a loaded barbell on the floor in front of you. However, don’t get ready to lift – you only need two small plates on the barbell so it will roll. Extra padding on your knees will definitely help, so put a pad on the floor. Your grip should be at shoulder-width and pronated, but your arms should be locked out as well. Your knees should be right below your hips and the bar should be right below your elbows. POWER SNATCH This exercise targets your shoulders. To begin it, take a barbell with a very wide pronated grip, which will make the bar rest slightly below or exactly at the crease of your hips, when you’ve straightened up your arms. If this doesn’t work, take

06-28 

5 Ways Kettlebell Training Can Improve Your Barbell Lifts

5 Ways Kettlebell Training Can Improve Your Barbell Lifts Throughout history, we have used different types of training tools to achieve muscular strength, development, and power. When I first began training on my own, my tools were predominantly barbells and dumbbells. It was not until I realized all the potential that a kettlebell could unleash that I started implementing them. After years of training with kettlebells, I now travel the country as a Senior Kettlebell Specialist with the Onnit Academy teaching others how to optimize their kettlebell training. I don’t only use kettlebells in my own training, but in my client’s programming as well. I have seen massive gains in all aspects of fitness thanks to this tool! Kettlebell training offers many unique adaptations that can lead to massive gains in your barbell lifts. Not only does training with a kettlebell increase your grip strength, but it also enhances core strength, mobility, shoulder stability, and power. If you’re new to kettlebells, then you can use the graphic below as an idea for what I’d classify as light, moderate, and heavy kettlebell weights. Grip Strength As we all know, barbell lifts require an insane amount of grip strength to execute proper lifts. Kettlebell training specifically requires you to learn how to adapt dynamic grip strength while wielding a load, as well as challenging your resistance to fatigue during time under tension. One of the best ways to enhance your grip with a kettlebell is to practice a farmer’s carry with two kettlebells for time. Increasing your time under tension while gripping onto the weight can help strengthen your forearms while also enhancing core strength. Try This: Kettlebell Farmer’s Carry While standing tall with a neutral spine and braced core, hold onto two heavy kettlebells (28kgs on each side) and stand in place. Try holding onto the kettlebells with a tight grip, irradiating tension throughout your entire body for 60 seconds. Perform 5 to 6 sets. Core Strength Dynamic core strength is one of the fundamental prerequisites to any advanced kettlebell work, therefore any form of kettlebell training is going to put an increased demand on your core muscles due to the offset load. Offset loading can be achieved with any tool really by training under uneven weight. The unique shape of the kettlebell allows for more grips and ready positions, so you can add offset loads to various movements more efficiently than with other tools. Try This: Kettlebell Overhead Walking Lunge One of my favorite core smashing exercises is the single kettlebell overhead walking lunge. Single kettlebell training recruits more musculature to stabilize your body throughout movements. This one is a great warm-up for barbell overhead squats. Try lightweight (8kg to 16kg kettlebell) for 15 reps on each leg for 3 to 4 sets. Mobility One of my favorite mobility exercises that I use to open up my shoulders are kettlebell arm-bars. This exercise is not only fantastic for mobilizing your shoulders through their full range of motion, but it is also great for creating dynamic shoulder mobility while under load. Try This: Kettlebell Arm-Bars Try these out for 10 reps on each side for 3 to 4 sets with a lightweight kettlebell (8kg to 16kg). Start lying on your back, pressing the kettlebell up towards the ceiling with one arm, make sure that your leg on the same side as the kettlebell is bent with your knee also towards the ceiling. Your other arm should be reaching straight overhead, resting on the floor. As you are holding up the kettlebell, try to maintain your shoulder packed throughout this movement as you rotate your chest towards the ground. While rotating,make sure to keep the loaded arm straight and try to get your bent leg over onto the other side of your straight leg. Shoulder Stability Learning how to maintain packed shoulders through dynamic movement is one of the cornerstones of shoulder stability. Irradiating tension in the lats leads to stronger lifts as you learn to use your back as a base to press more efficiently. Focusing on the slow and controlled negative press, and learning how to effectively pull (the weight down) teaches you how to use your lats to help keep your shoulders packed in a safer position when snatching, or jerking weights. Try This: Bottoms Up Overhead Press Bottoms up overhead press is my favorite shoulder stability exercise that is great for getting a lot of work out of a lightweight. While performing this exercise try to focus on packing your shoulder, while maintaining a neutral spine and tight core throughout the movement. Complete 6 to 8 reps on each side for 5 to 6 sets with a lightweight kettlebell (8kg to 16kg). Power Kettlebell training allows you to train for power under submaximal loads. This allows you to continue making gains while training under lighter loads, so that you can exert maximum force and get tons of muscle activation using li

05-27 

Weight Lifting History

10 Deadlift Variations to Light Up Your Legs and Butt

Work Your Chest, Back, and Shoulders With This Upper-Body Barbell Workout

8 BEST DUMBBELL EXERCISES FOR BUILDING A STRONG PHYSIQUE

The Full-Body Barbell Workout

5 Ways Kettlebell Training Can Improve Your Barbell Lifts

Dumbbells, Kettlebells or Barbells: Find the Strength-Training Tool That's Right for You

Deadlift Grips: Overhand Vs. Hook Grip Vs. Mixed

Two Drawbacks to Hook Grip

Benefits of Hook Grip