Know Your Muscle Building Exercises - The Shoulders Written by Rick Mitchell Every bodybuilder and weight trainer will have his or her favorite exercises for each body part. That's how it should be - as you progress through various stages of learning you'll understand what works best for you. It is useful, however, to take stock of your progress every so often and carry out an analysis of where you are and what changes, if any, are needed to move onwards and upwards. Part of this analysis should include an assessment of core exercises that make up your bodybuilding training program. In this article we'll look at shoulder exercises that have proven their worth to serious bodybuilders for many years. All exercises should be performed to failure with one set of six to eight reps. The Importance Of Sets In Your Muscle Building Program Written by Rick Mitchell In an earlier article we looked at how repetitions contribute to muscle building process, but is position regarding sets just as clear cut? Unfortunately, answer to this is no as some experts feel one set to failure is sufficient, whereas others argue that multiple sets are needed to ensure maximum muscle gains. Research to date suggests that, when using six to eight repetitions to failure at 75-80% 1RM, there is little significant difference between training with single and multiple sets in terms of increasing either strength or muscle size. Any small differences that have been recorded indicate that a single set completed to failure encourages strength gains but subsequent sets have a slightly greater impact on muscle size. What is clear is that law of diminishing returns applies, so you have to question if marginal improvements in size justify extra time and effort expended. Cont'd on page 2 ==>   ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005 Terms of Use