11 Strategies to Reshape Your Body
by Jen Heath

Getting "the look" involves so much more than quick trips to the
gym and fixing the right plate for dinner. How you look is all
about the shape of your body. Everything from how you train
to how you live determines if you're sultry or just plain
salty.

If I told you that there are hundreds of little things you can
do to reshape your body, wouldn't you want to know them? The weird
thing is that a lot of people just want a list of exercises; they
aren't interested in the little adjustments they could make to
ratchet up their workouts. But these are the things that make the
difference between someone who's just plodding along and someone
who's reinvented herself.
You need to think of your training as an ever-changing canvas.
So instead of leaving your look in the hands of the airbrush guy,
use these techniques to distinguish yourself.


Tip #1: Are You Tense? You
Should Be
If you want to turn heads in the gym with the weights you're
pulling off, as well as stay injury free, then you need to use
whole body bracing. This is something Pavel Tsatsouline
preaches emphatically.
Here's a quick trick that'll allow you to tap into your
superhero strength. First, squeeze someone's hand. Now, tense your
whole body and squeeze their hand again. Notice the difference.
Pretty powerful, eh?
Not only is this good for intimidating handshakes, it'll also
put some extra umph into your sets. Start off by preparing
to do a set of biceps curls. Tighten up your glutes and abs while
keeping the rest of your body just as tight. Commence with the
curling, and at the end, really squeeze your glutes and abs while
digging your heels into the floor. You should be able to eke out a
couple of extra reps.

This simple strength training technique can make all the
difference in your gains. Start bracing your entire body on all of
your movements and you'll surprise yourself what you can
accomplish.



Tip #2: Engage the Antagonist
Trying to engage the antagonist muscles on the negative phase of
a movement will really help your strength, stability, and long-term
joint health.
When you're squatting or lunging, "pull" yourself down into the
squat with your hip flexors. You'll immediately notice your glutes
kick it up a notch. When you perform a bench press, "pull" the bar
down to the bottom by engaging your lats.
By doing this on every movement, you'll feel tighter, more
stable, and be better able to contract the working muscle
groups.



Tip #3: For Gorgeous Glutes, Think, Stretch, and Abs!
You'd be surprised
at how much glute and hamstring development is influenced by your posture
and muscle activation in daily life.

To get more out of your glutes, try these simple ideas:

1. While you walk throughout the day, consciously engage your
glutes at each heel strike and as you roll off the ball of your
foot.

2. Stretch your hip flexors.


3. Lie on your stomach with your legs extended and one hand on your
glutes. Lift one leg off the floor and note the contraction. Next,
squeeze your abs and do the same thing. You should notice your
glutes are awake and firing. Thus, contracting the abdominals when
you squat, lunge, or perform hip extension movements is part of a
nice derriere.
The key to fully engaging your posterior chain on any deadlift
variation, such as stiff-legged or Romanian deadlifts, is to keep
your back flat and "dig" your heels in. Imagine that your heels are
about to dig a hole in the ground. You'd shove down and back,
right? That's how it ought to feel.



Tip #4: Not All Hamstrings are Created Equal
But they should be!
The majority of hamstring problems can be rectified by
performing as much hamstring work as quad work. Perform one set of
leg curls or stiff-legged deadlifts for each set of lunges and
squats. Additionally, stretch your quads regularly.

Most of us are inherently quad-dominant. When we train our lower
bodies, we develop (tighten) our quads and become even more
quad-dominant. This isn't limited to just lifting weights either,
as most cardiovascular exercise is very quad-dominant, too. Pretty
much the only activity that isn't is sprinting at max velocity. The
result is that tight quads are an epidemic. Loosening the quads can
increase activation of the hamstrings and glutes.

If you're the type who has disproportionately underdeveloped
hamstrings, it's time to address your pelvic tilt. Look sideways in
a mirror. Do the top of your hips tilt forward to the extent that
your butt sticks out a little? Or do your hips tilt so that your
butt is flatter than a pancake? If your hips tilt back, you
probably have a posterior pelvic tilt and your hamstrings don't
fire much in any activity.
To improve your posture, avoid standing with your hips swayed
forward and strengthen your hip flexors. To do so, while sitting
down with your back supported, raise one leg up above parallel and
hold it for 20 seconds. Work up to performing the hold with a
25-pound weight on your knee for two to three sets, three days a
week.



Tip #5: The Ab Bone's Connected to the... Glute Bone!
Just as you can increase glute activation by activating your
abs, you can increase abdominal activation by flexing your fanny.
Whenever you do trunk flexion movements like crunches or rotation
movements like woodchops, actively contract your glutes first and
you'll notice a dramatic difference.




Tip #6: Use a Disproportionate Grip for Biceps Curls
When doing dumbbell biceps curls, try an offset grip. Hold the
dumbbells with a hammer grip with your arms hanging at your sides,
placing your hands towards the front of the dumbbells. Now curl
them up, twisting your wrist into a supinated position.
You'll feel more stress on the short head of the biceps. Try
this on incline curls, too.



Tip #7: Fingers Count in Lat Stimulation
To get more lat stimulation when doing pull-downs and pull-ups,
wrap your thumbs over the bar and try pulling more from your pinky
andring fingers and less from your index and middle fingers.
The main difference between an overhand and underhand grip is
the former involves more of your mid-back and brachialis, while the
latter involves more biceps and less mid-back.



Tip #8: Get Your Lean on for Shoulders
When performing side laterals for your delts, lean slightly
forward and lift your pinky fingers higher than your index fingers
at the top.

To really blast the lateral head, do Telle laterals where you
perform them one arm at a time while leaning sideways on an incline
bench.



Tip #9: Feel Your Way to Teardrop Quads
For squats, hack squats, leg presses, and lunges, the closer
your stance and the more your knees go toward (or over) your toes,
the more you work your lower quads. The wider your stance and the
further you sit back, the more you work your upper quads along with
your glutes and hams. To zero in on the vastus medialis, or the
"teardrop" muscle, use a close stance and angle your toes out at 45
degrees.
To get a feel for targeting various parts of your quad on
different movements, use the proprioceptive method. Get in a
lunge position and place one hand on whichever part of the quad you
want to hit. Now, do bodyweight lunges and note how variations in
your stance width and style of performance influence the perceived
recruitment.
One word of caution: Never do any type of squat with your toes
pointing in, as the stress on the knees is too great.



Tip #10: Take Time for Your Calves
If you struggle with your calves, try the following standing or
donkey calf raise variation. Keep your knees straight and
concentrate on a slow three-second negative, a three-second pause
at the bottom, and explode in a fast push upward, making an effort
to rise up on your big toes.
Perform 15 to 30 reps in this manner (or as many as you can),
then continue the set by bending your knees a bit and performing
more reps. When you can no longer move without cramping, lower your
heels to the bottom and hold that intense stretch for ten
seconds.



Tip #11: Triceps, It's All in the Balance
Flex your triceps and take a moment to admire them. Note how you
have one head that sticks out on the side (the lateral head) and
one longer head that pops out on the bottom (the long head).
While you're posing, is one more pronounced than the other? Wish
you could balance things out? Well, the position of your elbows on
various exercises influences recruitment between the heads.

Performing exercises with your elbows tucked in toward your
sides, like dips and push-downs, develops more of the lateral
triceps head. Exercises where your elbows are in front, like
skullcrushers, decline close-grip bench presses, and overhead
variations, target more of the long head.
If you have an imbalance, pick your exercises accordingly and
hone in on that head.


A Tweak Here, a Tweak There

Take into account all of these simple, but invaluable, training
tactics to overhaul your routine. Remember, it's the little things
that create amazing workouts. And amazing workouts create amazing
bodies.


About the Author

Jen Heath is an ACSM certified personal trainer, professional
natural bodybuilder, and mother of four children. She runs a
successful online coaching business, through which she helps women alter the
course of their lives, and achieve the lean, muscular physiques
they desire. You can also find her at FatLossPros.net.


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