Phil Heath (full name Phillip Jerrod Heath) was born in 1979 in Seattle. You should already know the fact that his nickname is “The Gift” but what you might not know is the fact that his first experience with sports was not bodybuilding. He was a basketball player and was included in the University of Denver’s team. He eventually made the switch to professional bodybuilding in 2002. Phil Heath quickly gained a lot of popularity and this culminated with him winning in 2005 the NPC USA Championship. This is exactly where he got the right to compete in the professional competitions. Phil Heath quickly started to climb the ladder in bodybuilding.
The first pro events were won in 2006 and then he even started gaining more success. In 2007 we saw him being placed in the 7th place at the Arnold Classic. That was when controversy appeared. According to a lot of people he was supposed to be 3rd but you can not contest the judges. In any case, this basically earned him the qualification to the grandest stage in bodybuilding. Unfortunately Read more »
Unfortunately one of the biggest problems with bodybuilding appears when we workout too much. A lot of amateur bodybuilders tend to believe that they have to push it as much as possible in order to reach the best results. The problem is that this can easily lead to overtraining. Since ending up with such a problem is best to be avoided, we need to think about the signs of overtraining that we can see. By knowing them we can properly understand when we either need to take a break or simply workout at a lower physical level. If we workout a muscle too much it will not grow and it can affect us negatively. Here are the signs of overtraining that you must be on the lookout for: Read more »
This is definitely one question that a personal fitness and bodybuilding trainer hears very often. As we grow we learn that that working harder will bring in more results. Unfortunately this is not at all true in bodybuilding. If we do too many series and do not give the muscle enough time to recover we will be faced with a stop in performance. Our muscles might even become smaller if this continues. Unfortunately it is very difficult to know when we reach such a point in our workout because different factors will influence it. In any case, there are some signs that are linked with overworking your muscles. This includes loss of appetite, force loss, blood pressure being too high, body temperature rising unnaturally, loss of willing to workout or sleeping disorders. Read more »
The vertical leg crunch exercise is one that is sometimes overlooked by a lot of bodybuilders, both professional and amateur. You should take a look at it because it is quite effective especially for your obliques and rectus abdominis. Here is what you will need to do:
- Lie with the face up on the floor and start lifting the legs up while keeping your knees crossed.
- Contract the abs muscles and lift your shoulder blades. The chest should try and reach the feet.
- Keep the legs fixed and then after reaching the top position lower the legs but only after doing the crunches.
You should do around 2 to 4 sets, each with 10 to 20 repetitions. This should be enough and will work pretty well on your 6 pack abs. A demo video of vertical leg crunches can be seen after the jump. Read more »
Bodybuilding workouts are very enjoyable at first. You get a huge sense of energy and when you get to se results you are surely enjoying yourself. Unfortunately, sometimes it can become boring. Let us face it, certain exercises are really boring and it can be difficult to stick to a strict routine every single week. Since being faced with such a situation will immediately make you workout at a lower level, let us think about what you could do in order to make your workouts more fun.
The one fact that can immediately make everything more enjoyable is variation. Simply mix everything up and reverse your routines. Make changes in the order of the exercises. All these little changes can make you feel a lot better about working out. In fact, you need to understand that the whole concept of bodybuilding workout stands in having fun while gaining muscle mass. Read more »
