The stretch position of an exercise is one of the most productive positions you can put that target muscle in. It helps activate more muscle fibers by sending an emergency signal to the body and it can also help stretch out the fascia (the tough sheet of connective tissue surrounding the muscle that can restrict muscle growth), allowing more room for the muscles to grow (if you’re familiar with Ironman Editor-in-Chief Steve Holman’s “Positions of Flexion” training, then you’ll already be well-versed in the multiple benefits of stretch-position training). Read more

Nick Nilsson, a.k.a. the “Mad Scientist of Exercise”, is well known for his unique, out-of-the-box approach to bodybuilding and strength training. Through his 20+ years of training and making use of his degree in Physical Education (encompassing advanced biomechanics, kinesiology, physiology, and anatomy), Nick delivers constant innovation, extraordinary new exercises, and mind-blowing training techniques to his readers on a regular basis. To learn more about Nick and his “mad scientist” approach to building muscle, visit Mad Scientist Muscle now!

This exercise presents a unique challenge to the triceps…it’s a two-arm-looking one-arm movement. Yeah, I know that just sounds nuts.

Even though you’ll have two hands on the bar, only one hand is going to actually be supporting the weight…the other hand will just be there to balance the bar.  And this is in EXTREMELY effective for working the triceps hard and in a very focused manner. Read more

Nick Nilsson, a.k.a. the “Mad Scientist of Exercise”, is well known for his unique, out-of-the-box approach to bodybuilding and strength training. Through his 20+ years of training and making use of his degree in Physical Education (encompassing advanced biomechanics, kinesiology, physiology, and anatomy), Nick delivers constant innovation, extraordinary new exercises, and mind-blowing training techniques to his readers on a regular basis. To learn more about Nick and his “mad scientist” approach to building muscle, visit Mad Scientist Muscle now!

I’ve got something very strange for you today…strange in that it’s actually a NORMAL exercise that I’m going to talk about here!

That exercise is the Barbell Shoulder Press (seated or standing) and it’s one the best exercises you can do for building wider-looking, more powerful shoulders.
The problem is, most people do it wrong…or not as correctly as they could be… Read more

Nick Nilsson, a.k.a. the “Mad Scientist of Exercise”, is well known for his unique, out-of-the-box approach to bodybuilding and strength training. Through his 20+ years of training and making use of his degree in Physical Education (encompassing advanced biomechanics, kinesiology, physiology, and anatomy), Nick delivers constant innovation, extraordinary new exercises, and mind-blowing training techniques to his readers on a regular basis. To learn more about Nick and his “mad scientist” approach to building muscle, visit Mad Scientist Muscle now!

The push-up…it’s the first exercise you think of when you think of bodyweight training. It’s also one of the BEST bodyweight training exercises you can do. Bodyweight exercises have been shown to increase muscle fiber activation over their free weight and machine counterparts. This means a push-up (assuming equal resistance) would build muscle and strength more effectively than a bench press or machine press.

The main problem with the push-up is that, as great as it is, you are limited by your own bodyweight…there’s only so much of you to go around. Granted there are plenty of variations of the push-up you can use to increase the resistance of the exercise without adding extra weight, but the most straightforward way to increase the resistance is to simply add resistance.  That’s what THIS exercise is all about… Read more

Nick Nilsson, a.k.a. the “Mad Scientist of Exercise”, is well known for his unique, out-of-the-box approach to bodybuilding and strength training. Through his 20+ years of training and making use of his degree in Physical Education (encompassing advanced biomechanics, kinesiology, physiology, and anatomy), Nick delivers constant innovation, extraordinary new exercises, and mind-blowing training techniques to his readers on a regular basis. To learn more about Nick and his “mad scientist” approach to building muscle, visit Mad Scientist Muscle now!

Intensity techniques for chest training are often VERY overused (i.e. forced reps) and often VERY ineffective (i.e. forced reps). Sure, you feel like you’re working harder, but I have to say, I’d rather get more productive results rather than just feeling like I’m working harder!

So I’ve got a bench press technique for you here that’s going to do just that… Read more

Nick Nilsson, a.k.a. the “Mad Scientist of Exercise”, is well known for his unique, out-of-the-box approach to bodybuilding and strength training. Through his 20+ years of training and making use of his degree in Physical Education (encompassing advanced biomechanics, kinesiology, physiology, and anatomy), Nick delivers constant innovation, extraordinary new exercises, and mind-blowing training techniques to his readers on a regular basis. To learn more about Nick and his “mad scientist” approach to building muscle, visit Mad Scientist Muscle now!

If you want to build REAL core strength..and I mean BRUTE core strength that will support massive weights, forget the Bosu ball and forget crunches…you need to do exercises like the One Shoulder Barbell Squat that I’m going to show you today.

It’s another entry into my long list of exercises that work the abs while not looking at all like an ab exercise and working BETTER than most ab exercises. Read more

Nick Nilsson, a.k.a. the “Mad Scientist of Exercise”, is well known for his unique, out-of-the-box approach to bodybuilding and strength training. Through his 20+ years of training and making use of his degree in Physical Education (encompassing advanced biomechanics, kinesiology, physiology, and anatomy), Nick delivers constant innovation, extraordinary new exercises, and mind-blowing training techniques to his readers on a regular basis. To learn more about Nick and his “mad scientist” approach to building muscle, visit Mad Scientist Muscle now!

The “normal” barbell curl is obviously one of the most used exercises you’ll ever see in the gym. It’s the exercise people think of when they think of lifting weights (except possibly bench press).

And (like bench press), it’s one exercise that is totally misused and abused!

THIS little training tweak is going to automatically fix your form on EVERY single rep. Read more

Nick Nilsson, a.k.a. the “Mad Scientist of Exercise”, is well known for his unique, out-of-the-box approach to bodybuilding and strength training. Through his 20+ years of training and making use of his degree in Physical Education (encompassing advanced biomechanics, kinesiology, physiology, and anatomy), Nick delivers constant innovation, extraordinary new exercises, and mind-blowing training techniques to his readers on a regular basis. To learn more about Nick and his “mad scientist” approach to building muscle, visit Mad Scientist Muscle now!

Rear delts make for a complete physique…unfortunately, the rear delts can be a tough muscle to hit…bent-over lateral raises will hit them well in isolation and are useful to some degree. To really BUILD muscles, you need to use compound exercises.

Here’s the problem…there ARE no compound exercises that directly target the rear delts specifically.

Shoulder presses utilize the rear delts to help stabilize the shoulder joint, not to actually press the weight up. The rear delts function to pull the humerus (the upper arm bone) posteriorly (to the back), not to raise it up in a vertical movement pattern – that’s the front and side delts at work, along with the triceps.

Rowing and pull-up movements actually give you a more direct attack on the rear delts according to their actual function but the large powerful muscles of the back (like the lats, teres major and rhomboids) tend to take over, leaving the rear delts out in the cold.

That’s where THIS exercise combination comes along…you’re going to work two directly antagonistic exercises that each hit the rear delts…it’s basically the only common denominator between the two compound exercises. Read more

Nick Nilsson, a.k.a. the “Mad Scientist of Exercise”, is well known for his unique, out-of-the-box approach to bodybuilding and strength training. Through his 20+ years of training and making use of his degree in Physical Education (encompassing advanced biomechanics, kinesiology, physiology, and anatomy), Nick delivers constant innovation, extraordinary new exercises, and mind-blowing training techniques to his readers on a regular basis. To learn more about Nick and his “mad scientist” approach to building muscle, visit Mad Scientist Muscle now!

This is a really cool and unexpected back and ab exercise…BOTH exercises that you’ll be alternating actually work both the abs and the back in different ways.

This makes for a very challenging movement and a very effective one. Read more

Nick Nilsson, a.k.a. the “Mad Scientist of Exercise”, is well known for his unique, out-of-the-box approach to bodybuilding and strength training. Through his 20+ years of training and making use of his degree in Physical Education (encompassing advanced biomechanics, kinesiology, physiology, and anatomy), Nick delivers constant innovation, extraordinary new exercises, and mind-blowing training techniques to his readers on a regular basis. To learn more about Nick and his “mad scientist” approach to building muscle, visit Mad Scientist Muscle now!

If you want a bigger bench, this is a post you’ll want to read…

First off, I’ll be honest with you…the bench press is one of my worst lifts. I just don’t have the best shoulder structure and leverage for it.

And if you struggle with your bench press numbers, you might be in the same biomechanical boat as me…there is hope, though! Read more

Nick Nilsson, a.k.a. the “Mad Scientist of Exercise”, is well known for his unique, out-of-the-box approach to bodybuilding and strength training. Through his 20+ years of training and making use of his degree in Physical Education (encompassing advanced biomechanics, kinesiology, physiology, and anatomy), Nick delivers constant innovation, extraordinary new exercises, and mind-blowing training techniques to his readers on a regular basis. To learn more about Nick and his “mad scientist” approach to building muscle, visit Mad Scientist Muscle now!