Book Recommendation: Strength Training Anatomy

Strength Training Anatomy by Frederic Delavier

Quite literally the best book out there for anyone interested in strength training, fitness or anatomy in general. 

The book is broken down into target muscle groups: back, chest, legs etc. This latest edition even has sections on stretching and injuries.

Every exercise is broken down in this book with great information and even better illustrations. The last few pages have great illustrations on muscles and the skeleton; listing muscle and bone names. Get clued up on what you're training!


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3 Great Exercises for Big Traps

When we think about traps and training traps usually it's shrugs that pops right into your head. While shrugs are a great trap-builder and should be done there are some other exercises which are also great at targeting traps. Here are 3 great exercises for big traps.

Deadlifts

Deadlifts are such a great mass-builder for your entire posterior chain. Part of that chain being your traps. Traps should be trained through different planes of movement and deadlifts do just that. Imagine all the angles of strain your traps are put under throughout the entire movement of a deadlift. From the bent over position all the way through to the upright position.

Cleans

Cleans are definitely an underestimated movement for training traps. It's a powerful movement and involves your entire upper body but especially the traps. I feel the best pump in my traps after a good clean session. The hang, training the traps, the shrugging part of the movent, traps again. The nature of the clean means using momentum as well as strength and power to clean that bar up and as so you can move some heavy weight.

Facepulls

People tend to forget that the traps aren't just the chunky parts at the top, they also connect much lower down the back. They need training on a horizontal plane as well as through the vertical. With the facepulls you should really focus on squeezing at the end of the concentric phase and this will help build thickness in your traps.

I really hope this post has helped you out and given you some tips and idea's to improve your workouts. Please do subscribe to the blog and follow me on social media: Instagram and Twitter.

Most viewed post: Misconceptions of Women Weightlifting

First Impressions: Training at Colchester RFC

I've always loved Rugby, played at school, watch it on TV, go to matches. So the next step for me really was to play again! I started back up a couple of weeks ago now, the beginning of pre-season. We train twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7pm.

Everyone there is really friendly, coaches and players. Everyone has great patience especially with newbies like me, which I really appreciate. There is a whole range of ages, abilities and fitness levels.

Every training session is different, but always starts off with a good warm up and some dynamic stretching. Usually there's a little bit of fitness work first or some skills drills.

Sometimes we split into forwards and backs for some more targeted skill training, running lines and passing skills for backs, line-outs etc for forwards. I've been training with the backs, because honestly I don't think I'm big enough to be a forward, although it's also a shame I'm not really quick enough to be a good back haha.

We've done awesome fitness circuits with lifting, sprinting, jumping, weighted sleds (awesome), battle ropes and carrying team mates on your back and running. Definitely adds a new dimension to my fitness regime and gives me some fresh idea's for what I can offer clients of my own as well.

So, first impressions? I'm bruised all over and bust my lip up already, but... I'm LOVING it! The people are great, the fitness is great, the rugby... fantastic!

I'd definitely recommend joining your local rugby club, have a google, there must be one near you. If you're in Colchester pop along to Colchester RFC and join in.

Thanks for reading! More to come.

Most viewed post: Misconceptions of Women Weightlifting

Nuclear Race: May Mayhem

I've been trying to find the time and the place for an obstacle course type race for ages now, ever since my buddy did a Tough Mudder like a couple of years ago. I work a lot and most weekends as well so it can be quite hard to find time for stuff like this, but mid-May we found the perfect one on a free Sunday.

Pre-Race (Clean)

There are quite a lot of these obstacle course races now, the most popular being:

• Tough Mudder (www.toughmudder.co.uk)
• Spartan Race (www.spartan.com)
• Nuclear Race (www.nuclear-races.co.uk)

Of course there are many others, but these three are the most heard of. Recently, through Reebok sponsorship etc the Spartan Races have got quite a lot more publicity, on the back of the publicity going up it also seems the prices have as well.

Being popular in Essex but not quite as well known as the other races, the Nuclear Race was so much more reasonable than other races I'd looked into. There were two options for the race, a 6km or a 12km. Being someone who seems to enjoy punishment (take that how you will) I opted for the 12km, which was around £60. One of the great things about this race in particular was that it was is Brentwood, Essex which is only like an hour away from me.

On the 12km race there's about 85 or so obstacles and these range from muddy ditches, to 10m high walls, to death slides! I'll pop in a few photos for you guys to see below.

Para-Plunge (SO MUCH FUN)

Ebenezer (The most sticky, stinky and disgusting pool of mud ever...)

A group shot with some people we adopted getting through the trenches and rope nets.

Action shot! (Yes... I did fall in)

Sizing up the drop before sliding down.

A happy grimace of muddy goodness.

A 'we're alive!' photo at the end

Pre-Race

So first of all parking; parking was free and there was plenty! A short walk from the car park was the entry way, racers would go through one bit, non-racers another bit. Racers get a tag to attach to their shoe for the race for timing etc. 

Facilities at the track were great, loads of loos, tons of food and drink places and a couple of shops to get race supplies you may not have thought of or forgotten about, or for #LoveMud memorabilia. There was an announcer who actually sounded like Bradley Walsh (but wasn't...) and even a fun warm-up area which had a small climbing wall and monkey-bar type obstacles. 

Before the race proper all the racers go into a giant pen and the organisers take you through a warm-up which is led by a local fitness instructor, air squats and dynamic stretching galore. 

The Race and Obstacles

The actually running part of the race wasn't that bad at all, with the amount of people going through the obstacles you had plenty of time to rest if you needed it. 

The obstacles ranged from easy as pie to pretty testing, especially as the race wore on the obstacles got muddier and muddier, and slippier and slippier. Things like rope climbing, or swinging got really tough, there's just no way with that much mud caked on you and the ropes etc that some were possible later on in the race. Some, like the rope swing pictured above were designed so you couldn't get to the other side so you had to fall in the mud, which was cool 'cos it was fun. 

Most fun obstacles were definitely the Para-plunge and the Deathslide, I could just do those over and over again. 

Overall Opinion?

#LOVEMUD

Really, really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to anyone who fancies something a bit challenging, a bit fun and a bit messy. FIVE STARS. 

P.S. Bit obvious, but don't wear any clothes you're really fond of... 

Strength Training Anatomy by Delavier Review

This book is fantastic and I recommend it highly to everyone. It's drawings, of which there are over 600, are highly accurate and highlight muscle groups that will be targeted from each exercise that the book contains. Highlighted muscle groups are really useful to plan routines, especially if you're new to the gym and not sure which exercises work which muscles. The book is also broken down into different muscle groups, back, legs, chest etc, another useful tool for planning routines.  Not only does this book contain free weight exercises, it also contains resistance machine exercises, so no matter what gym you go to, or even if you workout at home you'll always find exercises in this book to do.  It gives tips on form and safety for each exercise, and this third edition of the book has extra pages on stretching and injury prevention. At the back there are two awesome drawings of Hercules, anterior and posterior, which details muscle names. Extremely useful for any budding fitness enthusiasts, instructors and trainers. I hope you find this review to be of use, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have, just comment below or tweet me @NF_Fitness.