Sunday 29 December 2013
Friday 27 December 2013
Thursday 19 December 2013
Monday 16 December 2013
Wednesday 11 December 2013
Wednesday 4 December 2013
Monday 2 December 2013
Tuesday 5 November 2013
Monday 28 October 2013
SAY NO TO...
...Squatting in the Smith Machine
Bad idea. Forces you into a fixed movement pattern which may not be ideal for your body. If you have problems with a rep its harder to get out under the bar despite having the ability to roll the bar into the pins. You will not be able to do this with the sort of weight you need to squat. With a barbell you can just jump out and throw the bar back.
Lighter front squats seem to be ok on the smith machine, but if your serious about building a pair of well muscled strong legs then the avoid at all costs.
Bad idea. Forces you into a fixed movement pattern which may not be ideal for your body. If you have problems with a rep its harder to get out under the bar despite having the ability to roll the bar into the pins. You will not be able to do this with the sort of weight you need to squat. With a barbell you can just jump out and throw the bar back.
Lighter front squats seem to be ok on the smith machine, but if your serious about building a pair of well muscled strong legs then the avoid at all costs.
Saturday 26 October 2013
Friday 25 October 2013
Sunday 20 October 2013
Thursday 17 October 2013
The Importance of Training Forearms
Too many trainers forego training forearms regularly. Good forearm development gives the whole arm an aesthetic quality aswell as promoting upper body strength. Small forearms look odd, aswell as making the whole physique look just that little bit smaller and weaker.
Forearms need to be trained consistently just like any other body part, however it is how you train your whole body in the first few years of training that will actually make the biggest difference to your forearm development.
Heavy back and arm training will promote thick forearms. Do not use wraps on any exercise. Only until you have spent a few years beating the iron and your forearms are reminiscent of slabs of beef should you use wraps on certain exercises. Heavy deadlifts, rows, pull-ups, shrugs and curls (especially dumbbell) will develop great grip strength and forearm thickness. Use the hook grip or one under and one over grip for deadlifts when the regular grip doesn't cut it. But continue doing all warm up sets with a regular grip. Add onto that some reverse barbell curls once a week and that should be all you need. Chalk is your friend, but some and save the money for wraps until you hold the biggest dumbbells in the gym for a couple of minutes.
Rosso - Natural Aesthetics
Sunday 13 October 2013
Monday 7 October 2013
Sunday 6 October 2013
Sunday 29 September 2013
Saturday 28 September 2013
Wednesday 25 September 2013
Tuesday 24 September 2013
CHEAT Curls - Not to be Overlooked
Hi and welcome to Natural Aesthetics. This blog, along with my Youtube channel :http://www.youtube.com/user/naturalaestheticstv is dedicated to building muscle and strength without drugs.
For some reason, alot of trainees neglect the principles of progressive overload when it comes to training their arms. Their all for training the bench press and lat pulldown with progressively heavier weights in the low rep ranges, but when its time to curl they seem satisfied with lifting baby weights for high reps. As if suddenly their training style that has served them so well on other areas of their body is no longer necessary for arms; the same rules don't apply?
Too often, trainees put a limit on the weights they use for arm exercises, for fear of using the slightest bit of momentum or hip swing and being labelled a 'cheater', so they stick at 16kg and see little progression in arm development.
The curl is one of the best exercises to cheat on, because its one of the few exercises that allow for it.What happens when you reach failure on squats or deadlift or bench press and shoulder press? Nothing, the set is over; there is nothing more you can do once your muscular energy is spent. On pressing exercises you could perhaps use a spotter to blast a few more out, focusing more on the negative portion of the rep as your concentric strength dwindles. Well curling with a slight hip swing is like self-spotting. Your carrying on the movement past failure and focusing on the eccentric phase (negative) for a few more reps...which as we all know is arguably even more important in strength and size development than the concentric contraction (positive).
Arms should be trained in the same manner as every other body part to maximize progress. If your arms get stronger they WILL get bigger, it is only a matter of time. The notion that arms will grow by chasing the pump with light weights every session is ridiculous. Trainees will often copy the movements and training of massive bodybuilders who train with relatively light weights...however what they don't realize is that almost anything is conducive to hypertrophy when spending thousands of pounds on drugs.
Think for yourself and dont be afraid of doing something different in your training. Dont limit yourself to certain weights when training arms just because its not the 'norm' - dont worry what others are thinking!. If a trainee progresses to 50kg dumbell cheat curls do you not think that their arms will be big? They will be strict curling weights that you couldnt even cheat curl!! You will not find anyone who can curl massive amounts of weight properly with small arms, just like you will never find a skinny guy who can bench 140kg for reps.
Cheat curls are a great tool for increasing the strength and size of your arms. They will build your strength beyond belief and the pay off on your forearm development from holding such big weights will be worth the effort alone! I havnt been using these techniques lately as regularly as i would like during my arm training, however i shall be going back to basics for a few months whilst continuing my bulk and cheat curling every session. With progressive overload in mind, I believe a set or 2 of cheat curls per session combined with a higher volume of work at light to moderate weights repped out in strict fashion will produce maximal arms gains...one should not neglect either styles of training.
Cheat Curls are not to be overlooked!!
Ross, Natural Aesthetics
Sunday 22 September 2013
Close Your Eyes and Get It Down!! RAW Weightgain Shake!
NO MESSING ABOUT!!!
Get it down, for cheap, convenient calories!
Friday 20 September 2013
Thursday 19 September 2013
Tuesday 17 September 2013
Monday 16 September 2013
Uploaded videos (playlist)
Excited for this years Olympia - will be a very close call. Best show down in years!
Saturday 14 September 2013
Tuesday 10 September 2013
{Post Adductor Strain - Lower Body Session. Determination and Consistency}
Its always daunting commencing training again after any injury. The session went really well today i worked up to a conservative 120kg and did 6 easy singles. I remember struggling on this weight for months on end a couple of years back. Grinding out a set of 5 was a near death experience and i wasnt even going as low as i do now haha! Squatting never came easy to me, i learnt the hard way through trial and error and practise. Perseverance pays off as i could now do 25+reps with this weight. Looking foward to next squat session and adding some more weight back onto the bar!
Monday 9 September 2013
Natural Bodybuilding Motivation - Chest and Shoulder Brutality
Very pleased with todays workout. After a 10 day period of lower training frequency, its back to hitting it hard with 6 days on 1 day off. Strength is progressing as planned; everything is going in the right direction. Im really itching to get back under the barbell and do some squats though! Tomorrow will be an interesting workout. I was working towards a 200kg squat for 1 rep, if all goes to plan and my adductor causes me no problems i expect to hit it by November. I may even attempt Smolov again to push it up a bit faster. Utter Brutality!
Home Workout - Natural Bodybuilding Back Bashing!!!
Home training Session (08/09/2013). Back and Arms. Stuck with dumbell rows as my back exercises because their easy to do at home. Warmed up with 16kg/24kg/40kg then did a set of 15 at 55kg followed by a 3 sets of 10 at 66kg. I then lowered the angle of the row to make it harder and hit the lats more, rather than the traps and rhomboids and completed 20 reps with 42kg. Arm training next, i chose cheat curls as my main exercise, however the bar is alot shorter then the olympic bars at work, which along with the plates not spinning on the barbell, made for a tough set. Im confident i could do 85kg+ for 5 reps on a proper olympic bar. Overhead tricep extensions followed for a couple of sets of 15 reps at 45kg followed by 15kg kickbacks for 15 reps. I will train arms again in 3 days or so and concentrate more on triceps for my first heavy set; probably pushdowns or dumbell extensions.
Thursday 5 September 2013
Uploaded videos (playlist)
Posing whilst on Bulk, an uncomfortable experience as im constantly stuffed and bloated haha!! 92kg now - i was around 76kg on show day. 4200+kcal a day; the vast majority of food being made up of carbs (550g). Bearing in mind a banana is about 25g of carbs, a KG of raw sweet potato (which after roasting reduces down to about 400/500g) provides a 100g of carbs! Its difficult; a different challenge to dieting certainly. I enjoy dieting as i see my physique becoming more aesthetic and shapely - however i also enjoy seeing my strength creep up when consuming this amount of food.
Natural Bodybuilding Motivation - Getting It Done
Getting it done. There are times when training isn't convenient, when its not easy and when you simply don't want to train...it would be easier not to. That is what separates a bodybuilder from a recreational lifter. As big Ronnie Coleman once put it: Everyone wanna be a bodybuilder.... (this parts my own) but no one wanna do all the hard, uncomfortable, inconvenient shit...haha!
The Barbell is waiting for you! Go lift!
The Barbell is waiting for you! Go lift!
Monday 2 September 2013
+Natural Bodybuilding Bar Bending Back and Arm workout+
Hello and welcome to Natural Aesthetics!! Watch out for regular updates featuring all my youtube videos and articles anything and everything related to natural bodybuilding, strength training, diet and life. Watch my latest Youtube video here:
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