How to Build a Bigger Chest, Sculpt Lower Abs & Avoid Supplement Scams
Posted by Brad Campbell
6
May, 2010
TopFatLossTrainer Q&A – Your Questions Answered…by Brad Campbell
I know everyone is having an anti-fat week, or at least I hope you are. I had to indulge a little yesterday–unexpectedly. My girlfriend conned me into going out to our favorite Mexican restaurant to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
Is it just me, or have I been living at restaurants lately? Seems like every time I post a new blog entry I’ve got some story bout how I’ve been stuffing my hypocritical face with fatty food, right?
I promise, I’ve been punishing myself with “wacky” workouts and “furious” fasts following these lean body-unfriendly feasts.
After all, that’s the ONLY way you even stand a chance of surviving frequent high calorie restaurant meals. I advise saving these for your cheat day, which is what I normally do.
Anyways, before I head out to the near 100-degree heat to hit up some angry intervals (my post Cinco de Mayo punishment)…I wanted to answer a few of the questions from my TopFatLossTrainer readers. Let’s jump right in…
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Hey Brad,
A few things: One. Ive lost a ton of weight with your workouts and I can really see the definition in MOST of my abs now. Most being the key word. I like don’t have my bottom two abs. They are just non existent. What can I do to build them?
Two: I can’t seem to get the size of chest that I want. I’m following your Sexy Beast Plan from the Inner Circle. What can I do to build my chest more while I’m doing this?
And three: Whats your take on NO-Xplode?
Thanks man,
Lucas
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First off, congrats on the progress you’ve made so far, Lucas. Don’t sweat it, the lower two abs are always the last to appear for us guys.
To address this first issue, there’s two things we’ve gotta focus on: A) You need to continue to tighten up the diet plan and get even more lean, as that lower stomach area will be hella stingy when it comes to giving up the fat that’s covering up those lower abs; B) To enhance the ‘popping’ of the lower abs, there’s a few exercises you can implement into your Sexy Beast Plan. Here are my favorite ab exercises that focus specifically on the lower abs:
—>> Lying hip thrusts – try keeping knees and ankles together; also minimize the tendency to bend at the knees; maintain 90-degree angle between body and legs; contract as hard as possible, raising your heels towards the ceiling and hold for a two count at top; lower slowly and under control. If you can do more than 10 perfect reps, try holding a dumbbell between your feet (abs are no different than any other muscle group and hypertrophy is most likely to occur in the low to moderate rep ranges…so don’t make the mistake of doing thousands of reps and then wondering why your abs don’t look a bit different).
—>> Modified hanging leg raises – if you’re strong enough, hold yourself at the top of a pull-up bar with lats flexed hard, elbow joint at about 90-degrees (instead of hanging with arms completely straight like Gigandet shown above)…and perform straight or bent knee leg raises, depending on abdominal strength. Focus on fighting gravity and momentum, as you contract super hard during the lowering phase. This is quite metabolic, as you’ll be working your lats, forearms and biceps as well.
—>> Also try doing the Advanced Ab Routine Workout within the Inner Circle.
Just remember that although these ab exercises will help to add some size and definition to those stubborn lower abdominal muscles, you’ll never be happy with the way they look without reaching an extremely low body fat percentage.
Okay, now for part two of your question. The “catch-22″ is that you’re wanting to add size to your chest muscles, while aiming for overall fat loss. Obviously, it’d be much easier for you to add size to your chest if you weren’t eating at a caloric deficit and following workouts that are designed to help you lose weight quickly.
However, it IS possible to both lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, but only with highly strategic dieting and workout plans. This is precisely what my buddy’s new Xtreme Fat Loss Diet plan is designed to do – allow you to shed fat rapidly, while gaining muscle at the same time ( check that program out if you haven’t yet).
Basically, to accomplish your goals of getting shredded, finally seeing a razor sharp 6-pack that actually includes the stubborn lower two abs, AND building a larger, more defined chest (like our boy Rain in the pic above)… and doing all of this as fast as possible…you’ll need to use a new and improved chest workout on the same day as your cheat day.
The massive influx of calories from your cheating will provide the ideal environment for an increase in muscle size. When combined with a fresh new chest workout that you’ve never done before, you’ll experience a noticeable improvement in this lagging muscle group. In this way, it’s possible to gain muscle at the same time (or at least within the same week) as losing body fat.
The important message is that to increase the size of a specific muscle (or muscle groups) during a designated fat loss period, you MUST train that body part with high volume, high intensity, heavy weight AND create an environment that’s favorable to muscle hypertrophy. By “favorable environment,” I of course mean lots of calories…and it just so happens that our accelerated fat loss plan includes such a day–the cheat day.
Alright, so now that you understand the “how” when it comes to losing fat and building lean muscle at the same time – in this specific case, losing lower stomach fat and bulking up the pecs – it’s time to look at a potential chest-ripping workout that you can attack on your cheat days…
Here’s a torturous chest workout that worked like a charm for me (just ask anyone who’s been around me long enough to see the “pec dance” when I’m purposely acting like a meathead)…
Grab a heavy pair of dumbbells that allows you to get approximately 12 perfect reps, but no more. Set an adjustable bench to incline (if your upper pecs need more work), decline (if the lower pecs need the most work) or flat (if the middle or outer areas need the most work).
After a brief warm-up, some dynamic stretching and a couple sets of body weight push-ups to activate the pushing muscles, it’s time to rock…
Perform 6 reps of dumbbell chest presses using an explosive concentric phase (it’ll be hard to move this heavy of a weight much faster than normal, but the key is to FOCUS on pushing the dumbbells as fast and explosive as possible), a one second pause in peak position, a much slower four second lowering (eccentric) phase and then a full one second pause at the very bottom position.
Rest for 15 seconds and repeat for another 6 reps, making sure to fight the urge to ignore the lactic acid-producing tempo I described. Repeat this exact sequence (making sure to stay true to the brief 15 second rest periods and the excruciating lifting tempo) for a total of 8 sets.
We’re not done yet…
Rest 3 minutes, then it’s time for the ultimate chest pump…
Here, you’ll be doing 8 sets of push-ups to failure, using an angle opposite of the dumbbell presses. For example, if you started with incline dumbbell presses, use decline push-ups (feet on ground and hands on a bench or step…it’s opposite of what the name implies); if you first performed decline dumbbell presses, use incline push-ups (feet on bench and hands on ground); and if you used flat bench dumbbell presses, select your push-up variation based on which part of the pecs needs the second most work.
Hammer out as many push-ups as possible, using a fairly quick tempo, but making sure to use an absolute range of motion. Focus on keeping the abs tight, back straight and spine in it’s natural alignment. Right before you fall on your face, end the set and rest for 30 seconds. Repeat this exact pattern, going to failure with each set, until you’ve completed a total of 8 sets.
Pairing this killer chest workout with a high calorie cheat day will give you a pump like no other. More importantly, the anabolic environment and high volume workout that takes you through a variety of advanced muscle building tactics, will surely give your chest the spark it needs to become larger and more defined.
Feel free to add additional weight training to this chest workout, but make sure to perform the chest-blasting part first, when your energy and focus will be the highest.
Cool, now for the last part of your question. I’ve actually purchased and used NO-Xplode in the past. For those that don’t know, here’s what this supplement claims to do (in the manufacturer’s own words):
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NO-Xplode is the world’s first and only pre-workout supplement that produces immediate results in energy, size, strength, pumps, performance, mental focus, and training intensity…You will literally see and feel NO-Xplode working within minutes of taking it!
It has the unique ability to get you dialed-in and pumped up for every single workout by inducing the strongest and most advanced nitric oxide, creatine, and body-mind stimulating surge ever developed in a supplement. No other products can say that! No other products can do that!
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Hmm, all that and they had the audacity to not include the fact that it probably cures cancer as well? All jokes aside, it basically gives you an energy boost and dilates your blood vessels, which theoretically could make your workouts more productive and deliver more blood and nutrients to the working muscles…hence, a better “pump.”
From personal use (this was several years ago when it first came out), I can tell you that it tastes great and it definitely did give me more energy and focus. But so would anything that contains B-vitamins and caffeine. As for the “NO” part – yes, nitric oxide does cause vasodilation, but I’ve yet to find a well-conducted study that shows a correlation between muscle gains and enhanced widening of the veins due to supplemental intake.
In other words, you have a mere theory, lots of overly-hyped advertising and almost no reliable proof whatsoever. I’m sure there’s plenty of guys who’ll swear by the added muscle building effects of this supplement, but it shouldn’t take a pharmacist to tell you that the power of the placebo effect can be huge.
My advice is to have a cup of coffee pre-workout (or my personal favorite – a diet Rock Star) and blow your $50 on something more worthwhile, like a really long lap dance (kidding…relax).
I think that should pretty much wrap up those questions.
Your Coach,
Brad Campbell
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