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How to Set Up for the Bench Press in 5 Simple Steps

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Want to boost your bench press strength and reduce your risk of injury? Follow this checklist: Activate your pecs. Set the bar about 2 inches lower than your wrists when your arms are extended and position your body so your eyes are under the bar. Grip the barbell about shoulder-width apart. Position your feet about shoulder-width apart and pull your shoulder blades together and down (“into your back pockets”). Unrack the barbell so that it’s directly over your chest, flex your glutes, imagine “bending the bar in half,” and then begin your set. Keep reading below for more details, videos, and graphics explaining each step. 1. Activate Your Pecs Technically, this step isn’t about setting up for the bench press, but it’s an easy, fast, and effective way to boost your bench press strength and better train your pecs with every rep. Many people struggle to feel their pecs (chest muscles) working during the bench press or rely more on their triceps than their pecs, which invari...
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The 5 Best Triceps Workouts and 9 Best Exercises (According to Science)

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Building stronger, more defined triceps comes down to three things: 1. Doing a small number of effective exercises, with proper technique. The triceps have one very simple job—straightening your elbow. Don’t let social media influencers and biomechanics eXpUrTz muddy the waters. You don’t need a dozen different exercises to train your triceps optimally. Instead, you need to focus on learning how to properly execute a handful of effective exercises (listed below). Two or three good triceps exercises, done properly, with just a few sets per week, beats “bombing” and “blasting” your triceps with every machine in the gym multiple times per week. 2. Doing at least one exercise that positions your elbows above your head. Your triceps muscles are composed of multiple sections (“heads”)—a long head and short head. The short head is trained by basically every exercise that involves extending your elbow. However, due to an anatomical quirk of ...
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How to Get Stronger without Getting Bigger

Most strength training advice assumes you want to get bigger as well as stronger, but what if you just want more strength but not more size? While you can’t achieve this perfectly—you can’t significantly increase whole-body strength without also gaining some muscle—you can train primarily for strength rather than size and get remarkably strong without looking like a bodybuilder. To do this, you must: Eat to maintain your body weight. Follow a high-intensity and low-volume strength training program. The first point is self-explanatory. If you want to limit muscle growth without restricting calories to lose fat, you want to eat maintenance calories with the occasional “mini-cut” to trim body fat levels (which generally tend to rise not fall when maintaining due to occasional bouts of overeating) when desired. The second point requires some explanation.  By “high-intensity,” I mean using heavy loads in the range of 80-to-95% of one-rep max (2-to-6 reps per set). This also impacts...
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How Shane Lost 20 Pounds & Dropped 10% Body Fat in 10 Months

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In 10 months of Legion’s body transformation coaching , Shane lost 20 pounds, 10% body fat, and gained significant muscle and strength. At 36, Shane was a busy professional working out in his home gym . He wanted to build muscle and drop body fat , but struggled to know what to eat and how to make cooking fit his schedule.  He needed a plan he could trust—one that would help him get lean and keep making progress long term. After seeing the results his sister achieved with Legion coaching, he decided to sign up and take his training to the next level. With the help of his Legion coach, Shane found that achieving his goals was straightforward, and he finally built the healthy habits he needed to succeed. Here are his results: Shane’s Journey When Shane started, he had the equipment and motivation to train hard, but nutrition was the missing piece. He struggled to hit his protein goals , and upcoming travel made consistency feel even harder.  More than a...
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Are You Growing or Swelling? The Right Way to Think About Confidence

Confidence is important, but if it’s not based on a realistic appraisal of who we are and what we can do, it’s counterproductive at best and smug delusion at worst.  There’s a big difference between growing and swelling. That’s why we can’t build self-esteem by merely thinking the right thoughts or saying the right words, but only by continually working hard at things we’re no good at until we are.  And that takes courage—looking in the mirror, deciding what we really should be doing, and then doing it. Sometimes, then, we have to ask ourselves hard questions.  “Do I lack talent or do I just need to focus?” “Do I need more help or education or do I just need to stop procrastinating?” “Do I need more motivation or do I just need to decide that not accomplishing my goals simply isn’t acceptable?” My point?  If you wait until you feel good to get going, you’ll never get off the mark and never feel good. This is why so much self-help advice comes down to “ju...
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How Jane Lost 18 Pounds & 3 Inches From Her Waist in 6 Months

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In 6 months of Legion’s body transformation coaching , Jane lost 18 pounds and gained significant muscle and strength. Jane had followed the Thinner Leaner Stronger routine inconsistently for about a year but hadn’t reached her goals. As a new mom , she struggled with the mental and physical demands of motherhood and found it hard to stay disciplined with training. She also worried that her social life would derail her diet.  Wanting a clear plan for both nutrition and training, she joined coaching to finally make a real transformation. Here are her results: Jane’s Journey Jane and her coach worked together to build a program that took into account both her personal and professional life. When Jane had days where she lacked motivation or felt like her progress was slow, Jamie was honest, kind, and respectful with her advice. A major turning point for Jane was learning how to overcome her fear of socializing while still staying on track with her fitness ...
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The Best Way to Do the Hanging Leg Raise for Six-Pack Abs

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Table of Contents + Instructions Expert Tips Mike’s Take Muscles Worked 3 Hanging Leg Raise Workouts More Ab Exercises   Instructions Find a pull-up bar that’s slightly higher than the height of your hands when you reach straight up.  Either jump up and grab the bar or place a weight plate, platform, or aerobics step on the floor that you can stand on. Grip the bar with your palms facing forward (pronated grip) and your hands about shoulder-width apart, and let your legs hang straight down. Keeping your torso as still as you can, raise your legs straight out in front of you until they’re parallel to the floor (no swinging). Lower your legs slowly to return to the starting position.  Pause for a beat to dissipate any momentum, then begin the next rep. Expert Tips To keep tension on your abs rather than your hip flexors, think about bringing your belt buckle to your belly button during each rep. In other words, focus on curling your pelvis posteriorly under your tor...
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