Get Dem Big Quads with Front Squats

Hey Guys! Welcome back to one of the best fitness and supplement blogs around. Today we will be bringing you another exercise, the Front Squats. Our favourite exercise after the dead lift.Front squats are great for putting on size on the quads and it is also a form of a corrective exercise. Front squats improves posture, weaknesses and increase strength tremendously. 

Type: Strength
Main Muscle Worked: Core, Quadriceps 
Other Muscles: Calves, Forearms, Glutes, Hamstrings.
Equipment: Barbell
Mechanics Type: Compound
Level: Advanced
Force: Push

How to do it?!
Here's an instructional video from Chris Jones representing PhysiquesOfGreatness
 

 The Basics:
1. Rack the bar on your power rack and set it at a height slightly lower then your shoulders.
2. Slam some weights on that bar or no weights if you are just starting out this exercise.
3. Rest the bar on your shoulders, more specifically between your delts and traps or on your clavicle.
4. Lift it off the rack with your hands only supporting the bar not holding it with your hands. Even if your hands are off the bar, the bar should stay in place. U can chose to use the Olympic style of supporting the bar or crossing your hands on the bar. I prefer the Olympic style.
5. Squat. You can do ass to the grass (optional). Focus on your quads, emulate a sitting movement and when you get low enough,, just stand back up.

Comment:
This is a great exercise but like the dead lift you'll be able to snap some shit up if you do this wrong.
Get your form down with just the bar. My team and I incorporate this exercise even in our warmups and we use this to improve out strength/power.

    We personally prefer the front squat to the regular back squat where the bar is on your spine. Reasons being you are forced to be in a thoracic extension( extension of the chess up and forward). Most athletes, including us,  have very tight or tonic biceps, pectorals, neck muscles due to sitting too much, overuse of the computer and pure laziness; thus we tend to hunch our back regularly. So, using this exercise, we are able to force thoracic extension and force our chest up. Improves posture!!
   
    Second reason why we prefer this as to back squats is the fact that we put a shit load of weights on our spine. Call this bro-science but we're definitely afraid that we're going to snap our spines and we wont be able to compete in our competitions, worst we'll be paralyzed. Enough Said! 

   Last reason would be that since we do a lot of clean and jerks, power cleans, snatches and dead lifts, we would use the front squats to strengthen the quads and core. This is so that we can excel in the clean and jerk and snatch.

Precautions
This exercise is not suitable for whoever with back problems. Even if you have a healthy back, you should practice the movements and get the form right with an empty bar because you might just snap some shit up.
Never ever slouch or arch your lower back. It puts a lot of unwanted stress on your back.
Keep your chest up or maintain thoracic extension at all times!   

Here are some additional videos regarding the front squats. 

 Both of these videos are from Elliott Hulse's Strength Camp

Video 1: Why front squats are better for athletes

Video 2:How to fix your front squat

These above are great videos that will help you in your front squats.


We at Get Dem Big love this exercise and we recommend this to any one who want to get big ans strong


GET DEM BIG with FRONT SQUATS!!

Good luck

Sincerely
Dom
#strength4good

Get Dem Big is in no affiliation with any of the advertisers/products/brands. We are just giving our honest feedback and sharing our experiences.We will not be held liable for the actions of readers.

Get Dem Big with Creatine

What's up good people!! We are back and this time we're here to review another supplement: Creatine

          I bet y'all have heard a lot about creatine and its effect, side effect and all that jazz. Here's the deal, we're gonna breakdown the facts of creatine to its bare essentials. We're also putting links which we think have good explanations regarding this creatine topics. 

      Creatine is THE most studied supplement and it being the most studied it has a lot of information out there, so much so that you might get confused

.   

Fact:

1. Creatine reduces fatigue by transporting extra energy into your cells. Energy in the body are ATP(Adenosine triphosphate) and for muscle contraction it breaks off phosphate molecule; thus ATP=>ADP (Adenosine diphosphate). Creatine lends a phosphate molecule to the ADP thus forming ATP. In simpler terms, it is energy recycling. 

2. Creatine pulls water molecule into muscles: thus making muscles look fuller and bigger. 

3. Taking creatine may cause a slight dehydration. Drink more water if you're on creatine. 

4. Creatine does give you additional energy but you won't feel it right away nor would be like a surge of energy through your body. 

5. Creatine may take up to 4 hours to breakdown and for it to work. You might not even feel it work

6. It takes 2 weeks to get your muscles saturated. (Dosage of 5grams/1 teaspoon per day) 

Health precautions. 

Please consult your doctor or get yourself checked out before using creatine. If you don't have any kidney, liver or any health problems for that matter creatine is safe to use. Just dont exceed the recommended dosage perday. Read the instructions on the tub.  

     Here's our take on creatine. we are on creatine for about 7 months and we do feel that it is benefiting us in our training. We just take it with our protein powder in the morning. We'll do a review on our current creatine supplement. We do feel that we have more energy and power in our lifts. Our deadlift and power clean weights has increased at a higher rate compared to when we were training without creatine. I don't know whether the creatine gave us a mental edge or really gave us the physical edge. I can conclude that creatine does not give you a surge of energy like sugar does but it is more on the energy or power within the muscle and you can feel that you have more strength. 

Here are some links that we think are interesting and a good read on Creatine. 

http://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/creatine-side-effects-what-it-what-it-does?cm_mmc=Fox_Health-_-Creatine--Myths%20and%20Facts-_-Article-_-Creatine--Side%20Effects

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/10/11/creatine-myths-and-facts/

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDzKae45TQU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-1i0kcowDo

Thanks for reading and see you next time with a supplement review on creatine! 

Sincerely,

 Dom

#strength4good

     

Get Dem Big with DEADLIFTS

What's up people!!
Today we bring you a great exercise that will help u build a stronger body!!

We have the DEADLIFT!!

This is a killer exercise, it works your core, it works you legs, it works your shoulders, It will tear you apart(metaphorically and literally because if done wrong, you can snap some shit up!)
This is some tough shit! hope you're ready or this!

So the breakdown of the Deadlift

Type: Strength
Main Muscle Worked: Lower Back
Other Muscles: Calves, Forearms, Glutes, Hamstrings, Lats, Middle Back, Quadriceps, Traps
Equipment: Barbell
Mechanics Type: Compound
Level: Intermediate
Force: Pull

How to do it?!

you know what, the best way to learn this movement is by watching it! We'll hook you up with videos from youtube, what we think are the best explanation for the deadlift. 

First off we have one from Elliott Hulse  

 The science of dead lifting part 1

The science of dead lifting part 2 

The science of Deadlifting part 3 

The science of dead lifting part 4 

 Awesome detailed explanation of the deadlift above by Elliott Hulse. 

If the ones above are a little to many for you, you can check out , Deadlift short explanation

This video covers all the basis of a deadlift in a very short video. 

Warning: from this video, you can see that he does not keep his head straight in this video, instead he looks up. 

Please keep your head straight during the entire movement, or you might break some shit up. Dont look at yourself in the mirror when u are performing a deadlift. 

Comment:

Personally the deadlift is my favourite exercise and the most effective exercise for strength gains. As you can see, it work all kinds of shit in your body. You want a strong, thick back?! Get you ass to the bars and do the deadlift. 

I always start my workout with deadlifts or power cleans (get back to that later). 

Here's what I do on my strength/back and leg day, (Mondays)

I start my deadlifts with 20kgs as my warm-ups (2 sets)

work set 1 : 40kg (2sets, 12 reps each)

work set 2 : 60kg (2sets, 10 reps   ")

work set 3 : 70kg (2sets, 7 reps      ")

work set 4 : 80kg (2sets of 5 reps   ")

work set 5: 90kg (2sets of 2 reps    ') This is my limit.

Then I go down the ladder with 1 set, till failure

After deadlifts I proceed to my workout

Pullups (4set till failure)

Barbell rows (4 sets of 10 reps)

V-bar Cable rows (4sets of 10 reps)

Leg Presses (6 sets of 10 reps)

3 position Calf raises (4 sets of 15 reps for each position)

Then, I'm done for the day

I've always participated in sports like Discus throw, javelin and the occasional hammer throws. After I started dead lifting, i feel like my back and my shoulders has more power. Especially when I do a spinning motion for discus throw, my lower back has more of a kick to it. 

 

Precautions:

1. Get the form down!!! Go with lighter weights when you first start dead lifting. Don't be a cocky dude with all kinds of snapped up shit.
2. Keep a neutral spine. What's a neutral spine?? Check this Awesome stuff with some pictures for you to see here
3. Don't round you back. It will injure your lower back.  KEEP YOUR SHOULDER BLADES TOGETHER and maintain THORACIC EXTENSION !!
4. If you have back issues, then don't do this exercise. We will not be held liable if you snap some shit up.



Sincerely
Dom

Get Dem Big is in no affiliation with any of the advertisers/products/brands. We are just giving our honest feedback and sharing our experiences.We will not be held liable for the actions of readers.