3 Muscle Building Tips From South Beach

How to Build Muscle

I just got home from a four day weekend down in South Beach where I got some much needed R&R. Had a very relaxing stay at the Palms and a few great meat-free meals at The Standard (hummus plate, quinoa salad, vegan ding dongs for dessert!) and the Café at Books and Books (black bean and veggie sandwich, vegan carrot coconut cake). The food at the Ritz was highly disappointing as was the fare at Pasha’s, which was a huge let down since they had so many healthy choices on the menu. The food at the Setai was pretty good, and they had a vegetarian menu, although most of it was a bit spicy for my liking.

As for the legendary South Beach night life…

My main goal for the trip was to just totally chill out. But we did venture out a bit and had some fun at the Shore Club and the Delano. How could you not?

Even though I planned to rest the entire time I was there and not do any training at all I found this incredibly difficult and ended up doing some sprints on the beach on Saturday morning before the sun was at full strength and I also did a ton of walking up and down the beach.

Being near the ocean always allows me some time to think clearly and come up with great new ideas. And of course, one of the things I think about most is training and nutrition.

How could you not think about fitness when you’re surrounded by so many tanned, chiseled bodies? Many of whom also happen to be topless and wearing thongs… Well, I suppose your thoughts could drift in other directions at the sight of a Vida Guerra look a like strutting by in a g-string. But that’s another topic for another day.

Today I’m going to share 3 unusual muscle building tips for a bigger chest and arms that you may not have heard before…

- If you suffer from slouched posture and your shoulders are rounded forward (from sitting at a computer all day) you often end up with tight pecs that won’t grow no matter what they do. This is one of the rare cases where I might recommend an isolation exercise. After your main pressing exercise, try doing one 10-15 rep set of bodyweight flyes, on rings or straps, getting a deep stretch in your chest. Immediately after the set, stretch your pecs intensely for 30-60 seconds. Also, be sure to include some face pulls and band pull aparts in your program to strengthen your upper back muscles and even out an imbalances.

- When doing curls of any sort start the lift by curling your wrists first. I forgot about this for a while but was reminded of it after a recent exchange with the first Mr. Olympia, Larry Scott, who was a big proponent of this technique and had the guns to show for it. When you do this you engage the forearms and get a stronger contraction from your biceps. You also shorten the lever arm which allows you to use more weight. Basically you get more bang for your buck out of the exercise.

- The best triceps building exercises in existence are close grip bench press variations and dips. But from time to time some isolation work can be beneficial; especially for advanced lifters (beginners should stick with the first two exercises) and guys with bad shoulders who can’t press or dip. In this case you are left with extensions and push downs. Both fine exercises; the problem being that they end up hurting a lot of people’s elbows.

To get the most out of these exercises while avoiding the pain try using Fat Gripz (www.FatGripz.com) on the bar, dumbbells or pushdown handles. The fatter grip forces the hand to open wider and alleviates stress on the elbow. Less pain leads to more growth. It also has the added benefit of simultaneously working your grip.

Train hard,
Jason Ferruggia

PS. For more muscle building tips to help you get bigger arms and pecs before summer arrives, visit http://www.MuscleGainingSecrets.com/