Check out this video of Patrick Willis working out. Patrick likes to start his workouts with a little bit of cardio to get the blood flowing. Patrick then credits his core strength for being able to develop his freakish physique.

When it comes to working out your chest, there’s not too much variation in terms of different exercises that you can use like you can for other body parts such as back, triceps, biceps, or shoulders.  It seems as if all you can do is rotate between starting off picking between flat bench or incline bench and then choosing between dumbbells or barbells.

I’ve started incorporating the medicine ball into my workouts. The great thing about using a medicine ball is that it adds variation to your workout and it works all of your supporting muscles, and especially your core.

I typically start off with 4 sets on the incline bench and then follow that up with 2-3 exercises using the medicine ball. The great thing about the medicine ball is that you can use so many different variations.

I like to do push ups and rotating the ball to each arm. You could also do push ups with three medicine balls by placing your hands and feet on a medicine ball. This really works out your core! You could also do a pushup with a medicine ball and then throw in an arm raise to work out your shoulder just a little extra as seen in the video below.

If you want to boost your training intensity, try supersetting the bench press with medicine ball push ups and you’ll really feel the burn.

To cap off my chest workout with the medicine ball, instead of flys, I’ll simply do a push up with both hands on the medicine ball, which also works out the triceps really well.

The rest-pause technique is an advanced training technique which tricks your body into performing more reps than it would ordinarily perform.  This is a great technique to use to increase strength and size. There are two ways to use this method:

1.) Perform a set until you’re one rep short of failure, then hold the weight in the starting position (for example, on the bench press at the top position) for 10 seconds.  Breathe deeply then attempt another rep.  After that rep, repeat the 10 second hold again, and attempt another rep.  This should only be done on 2-3 sets.

2.) Perform a set until you’re one rep short of failure, then rest the weight back on the bar, breathe deeply for 20 seconds, and then try more reps.  This pumps more oxygen into your bloodstream, helping refuel your muscles.  You should be able to get 2-4 more reps.  After you hit failure, rest the bar again for 20 seconds, and see if you can do another rep.

Some people avoid training and working out their back because they find it boring or it’s just not as “sexy” as bench pressing or arm workouts.  If you’ve negligected training your back, that’s unfortunate because by training your back, you can take advantage of two huge benefits:

1.) Building your back helps burn belly fat.  That’s because the more muscle you train, the more fat you burn, and the largest muscle in youbody is your lats.  Add pullups into your routine to really hit this muscle group.

2.) Your arms will get stronger the more you work your back.  Rowing movements that work the back are great for building up your arms.

3.) There’s nothing sexier than a V-shaped back.

Total body training is a great way to build muscle, as opposed to a split routine, especially when you don’t have a lot of time to visit the gym.  It’s also a great way to alter you’re workout so your body doesn’t get used to the same workouts over and over again.

Total body training forces the body to release more muscle building hormones than it would if you were just training one or two body parts at a time.  A total body training routine also gives you the ability to train the muscles more frequently, allowing you to hit them up to three times a week.  When you use a split routine you risk overtraining some muscles, while neglecting others.

When you use a full body routine its important to keep in mind that you perform fewer sets for each exercise thatn you would in a split routine.  You should pick out 2 different workouts – Workout A and Workout B – and alternate them.  For the first week you will perform Workout A twice and Workout B once and the following week you’ll perform Workout B twice and Workout A once.

Drop-sets are a great technique to use while you lift, but often times people do them incorrectly. The most common mistakes are using too light a weight and dropping too much weight, too many times.  Here’s what you should do: start with a weight that causes failure at the lifting phase at 6-8 reps, at that point drop the weight by 10% and keep going until failure (approximately 4), and repeat until you can’t do more than 2-3.  Try to limit yourself to 2 drops and no more than 15 total reps and decrease the weight by only 10%.  Most people start with a weight they can do for 12 reps then drop it by 50% for another 10 reps – that’s not the way to do it.

Here is a quick exercise you can do right before you hit the bench which will instantly help increase your strength.  All it involves is a four- to six- pound medicine ball. Simply start with the ball in the palm of your hand and forcefully dribble it like a basketball for one rep, repeat that for six more reaps for each arm, and performs 3 sets.  This will get the fast-twitch muscles fibers fired up and you’ll be stronger on exercises that utilize the chest, triceps, and shoulders.