| Q – “Hello Mr.Hansen!
I got your DVD and it is really really good! I'm a natural bodybuilder and it helped me very much with my preparation! I have one question for you!
I have problem when position my shoulders on the bench, and, as a result, I can't isolate my chest enough!
I know you said "Chest Up, Expand the Rib Cage, Shoulder Down and Back,Big Arch,Hold slightly tight Shoulder Blades"...
But I feel like I’m still missing something!
Can you explain to me step by step how to position my back/shoulder for better remove them from movement, especially shoulders!
And I saw most Pro BodyBuilders do someting before they start to bench (just when they lie on the bench and grab the bar they make one fast movement and i think it allow to them to isolate shoulders)!
In your DVD you do this too on 4:13 or 4:14 (minutes:secounds)!
Plz Mr.Hansen if you have some free time explain to me!
Thank you in advance!”
Regards,
Zdravko Genov
A. – Your question is a common one concerning the bench press. When I am training a beginner on the barbell bench press exercise, it is not unusual for a lot of people to do the exercise incorrectly and feel it more in their shoulders than the chest.
The bench press is a chest exercise but it also involves the anterior (front) deltoids and the triceps. Properly performed, the exercise should be 70% chest, 15% delts and 15% triceps. However, some people do the exercise wrong and feel it more in their shoulders or triceps instead of the chest.
The proper way to execute the Barbell Bench Press to train the chest is to begin by taking a moderately wide hand spacing on the bar. The rule to remember here is that when your upper arms are parallel to the floor during the exercise, your lower arms (forearms) will be perpendicular to your upper arms. This hand position will allow the arms to be wide enough during the course of the exercise so the chest will have to do most of the work.
If you grab the bar with a closer hand spacing, you will feel the exercise more in your triceps than your chest. I notice that a lot of people tend to favor a close hand spacing when doing the bench press. I think this is because you feel stronger and tighter when using a narrow grip on the bar. Grabbing the bar wider can feel like you are at a mechanical disadvantage when pressing the bar. However, your primary goal is to develop the chest muscles, not push up the maximum amount of weight. By using a wider hand spacing, the chest muscles are utilized much more and they are forced to work harder.
If you do the opposite and grab the bar with a very wide hand spacing, you are using more deltoids than chest. A wider hand spacing on the bar will limit the range of motion for the exercise and put an abnormal strain on the front deltoids instead of the pectoral muscles.
Now that you have the right hand spacing established, let’s go over the rest of the exercise. You need to put your body in the proper position to feel the exercise in your chest and not your shoulders.
As you mentioned in your question, you want to expand the ribcage and keep the chest high with the shoulders pulled back during the exercise. Many people have a difficult time keeping the chest high with the shoulders back and that is why I recommend expanding your ribcage when doing the bench press. If you expand your ribcage, you are automatically pulling your shoulders backward as the chest expands. Also, by expanding your ribcage, your chest should be held high. This will put the pectoral muscles in the right position to benefit from the exercise.
When the chest is held high with the ribcage expanded, the shoulders should be pulled back. By keeping the shoulders pulled back, you are taking them out of the movement and placing most of the stress on the chest muscles.
The mistake that many people make when doing the barbell bench press is to push the bar up too far at the conclusion of the exercise. They use the shoulders at this point by caving in their chest and extending the arms and shoulders to push the bar up. As you can imagine, doing this involves the deltoid muscles instead of the chest muscles. As long as you keep the ribcage expanded with the shoulders pulled back, you will feel the exercise in the pecs and not the delts.
If you do all of these things and are still having trouble feeling the exercise in the pecs instead of the shoulders, I would recommend that you start off with a very light weight so you can feel the movement in the chest. Keep the ribcage expanded with the shoulders pulled back, grab the bar with a moderately wide grip and pull the elbows back during the exercise so they are right under the bar.
I remember reading about how Tom Platz was able to develop the mind-muscle connection when it came to training his biceps. Tom said that he had a very strong mind-muscle connection when training his legs but he had a very difficult time doing the same thing when it came to training his biceps.
To overcome this problem, Tom stopped training his biceps heavy and he started doing curls with the 10 pound dumbbells. He did the exercise very slowly and deliberately, feeling every muscle fiber contracting during the movement. When he had firmly established the mind-muscle connection using the 10 pound dumbbells, Tom moved up to the 15 pound dumbbells. He followed the same procedure until he was back up to his normal weight of 75 pound dumbbells.
You could do the same thing with the barbell bench press. Go back down in weight and use the correct form so you feel the exercise in your chest instead of your shoulders. When you have the movement down with the mind-muscle connection clearly established, then you can start to increase the weight on the bar until you get back to the weight you are using now. Good Luck!
Q. - I recently purchased your book, and have read it cover to cover. I'm 6'4, 350 lbs and I'm 22. Not exactly 'bodybuilding' condition, but that's what I want to work towards. My question is, I need to know how to calculate bulking and cutting caloric requirements as I didn't see how to do that in your book. I know I should experiment but there is a ton of room for error when you don't even know where to begin. Is there a formula for calculating those 2 (cutting and bulking), just to get me in the area, and do you calculate using lean mass or total bodyweight? I ask because I wouldn't think you need to add more calories just to 'feed the fat'. Actually one more question, I'm of endomorphic bodytype, so is it ok to eat most of my carbs from brown rice?
Thanks John, your book is very inspiring to me, and I can't thank you enough for writing it, just the information on how to do the exercises correctly was worth the price I paid.
A. - The method I use to calculate the calorie requirements for bulking or cutting is to look at each macronutrient separately and establish a number for each of the macronutrients. Protein, carbohydrates and fats all play different roles in the body and they must be adjusted for gaining weight or losing fat.
When you are trying to lose bodyfat and maintain or build more muscle, protein is the most important macronutrient. I would eat approximately 1.25-1.5 grams of protein for each pound of bodyweight when I am dieting to lose fat. If I weigh 220 pounds when I start my diet, I will eat anywhere from 275-330 grams of protein per day on my fat-loss diet. One gram of protein is equal to 4 calories per gram so this would come out to 1100-1320 calories from my protein intake alone.
When I am trying to lose fat, I will moderate my carbohydrate intake in order to starve the fat cells while still consuming enough carbs to supply the energy I need for my intense weight training sessions. If I don’t eat enough carbs, I risk losing muscle because the carbs are “protein sparing” which means they are utilized for energy thus sparing the protein to be used for building muscle. However, if I eat too many carbs, I will not lose my bodyfat fast enough because of the excess glycogen, which can be stored as fat on the body or, at the very least, can slow down the rate of fat moblilzation.
On the days I weight train, I need more carbohydrates to fuel the training session. I also need carbs immediately after the workout to replace the glycogen I just burned up in my training. I always have 2 scoops of the post workout drink, 2:1:1 Recovery from Optimum Nutrition, which provides me with 70 grams of fast acting carbohydrates after my training session.
On my training days, I take in almost one gram of carbohydrates for each pound of bodyweight. Using the above example, if I weigh 220 pounds and I consume .95 grams of carbs for each pound of bodyweight, I would eat 209 grams of carbs on a training day.
On a non-training day, I would drop my carb intake drastically from a training day. I do not need as many carbs because I am not training on that day so I am eliminating my post-workout drink which cuts out 70 grams of carbs from my diet on those days. By eating less carbs on my non-training days, I am essentially “starving” the fat cells by not feeding them with nutrients that could possibly be stored as fat.
On a non-training day, I would limit my carbohydrate intake to only .7 grams for each pound of bodyweight. If I weigh 220 pounds, I would only consume 154 grams of carbohydrates on a non-training day.
As for my fat intake, I will eat a moderate amount of fats because my carbohydrate intake is low to moderate. If I were eating a higher carbohydrate diet, I would eat a low fat diet. Basically, to lose fat, you need to eat a high protein diet and eat either low carbs or low fat.
Since I choose to lose fat by moderating my carbohydrate intake, I will eat a moderate amount of fats. I try to eat monounsaturated fats such as flaxseed oil, salmon and peanut butter. My fat intake is usually between 55-70 grams of fat. I eat more fats on my lower carb days than on my training days.
The caloric breakdown for a diet designed to lose bodyfat would come out to about 45% protein, 35% carbs and 20% fat on a training day. On a rest day or a non-training day, the calories would break down to 50% protein, 25% carbohydrates and 25% fats.
When trying to gain weight and put on muscle mass, the ratios are different. Protein is still important but the carbohydrate intake should be increased in order to add more muscle. As with the fat loss diet, the carbs are the one macronutrient that is adjusted to achieve the goal.
When I am trying to gain more muscle mass, I will eat more carbohydrates than protein. Depending on how fast your metabolism is and your age (the metabolism tends to slow down as we get older), you should eat anywhere from 2-4 grams of carbohydrates for each pound of bodyweight. At a bodyweight of 220 pounds, I would eat an average of 440 grams of carbohydrates when trying to add muscle mass. When I was younger, I would eat anywhere from 500-600 grams of carbs to increase my size and bulk up.
One way to add more size without putting on too much fat when eating more carbs is to alternate your carbohydrate intake. I did this when I was dieting to lose fat, eating more carbs on my training days and less carbs on my non-training days. You can do the same when eating to gain muscle by eating more carbs (2 grams for each pound of bodyweight) on your training days and less carbs (1-1.5 grams of carbs for each pound of bodyweight) on your non-training days.
My protein intake is also high when eating to add size and bodyweight but not as high when eating to lose fat. I eat an average of 1.25 grams of protein for each pound of bodyweight on the weight gain diet. If my weight is 220 pounds, I would be eating 275 grams of protein per day.
My fat intake would be about the same on my mass-building diet as my fat loss diet. For those who have a very fast metabolism, eating even more fat would benefit them because fats have more calories per gram (9 calories compared to 4 calories) than either protein or carbohydrates.
When I was eating to gain size, I would eat foods such as whole eggs and red meat because of the higher saturated fat content. This increase in fats would help boost my caloric intake, which was essential due to my extremely fast metabolism.
The macronutrient breakdown for a bulking or weight-gain diet would be 35% protein, 50% carbohydrates and 15% fats on a training day. On a non-training day, it would be 40% protein, 40% carbohydrates and 20% fats.
John Hansen has won the title of Mr. Natural Olympia and is a 2x Natural Mr. Universe winner. Check out his website at www.NaturalOlympia.com or email any questions or comments to him at John@NaturalOlympia.com. Look for John's new DVD “Natural Bodybuilding Seminar and Competitions” along with his book, "Natural Bodybuilding", and his Natural Bodybuilding Training DVD, "Real Muscle", at his website, www.naturalolympia.com or at the HomeGym Warehouse. You can send written correspondence to John at the following address: John Hansen, PO Box 3003, Darien, IL 60561.
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