Brett Williams, Author at Men's Health Magazine Australia

Tom Stoltman wins the World’s Strongest Man 2024 crown

Brett Williams — Mon, 06 May 2024 23:48:53 +0000

TOM STOLTMAN IS once again the World’s Strongest Man.

The 29-year-old Scot took back his SBD World’s Strongest Man title from Canadian Mitchell Hooper, who just edged out Stoltman for the top spot in 2023. The pair switched places for the 2024 contest, which was staged from May 1 to 5 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Stoltman, representing Great Britain, won the hallowed strength sport championship for the third time with 53 points. Hooper was the runner up with 47.5 points, and the USA’s Evan Singleton rounded out the podium with 36 points. Stoltman won his first pair of titles in back-to-back victories in 2021 and 2022.

“I wasn’t going home without [the win] this year. Winning the title is special every time you win it, but to come back from losing it and to win it is extra special,” Stoltman said following the event. “I shocked myself getting the lead after the first day. I wasn’t favored to win three events so to come out on top for all three was a surprise. Anyone can beat anyone on any given day, but I think it came down to who wanted it most, and this year, I wanted it most.”

COURTESY OF WORLD’S STRONGEST MAN

Stoltman took the lead after the qualifying rounds of the competition and came out on top at end, with his strong performances across all six of the Final events cementing the win. He only took first in a single event—his specialty and the final event of the competition, the Atlas Stones – but finished in the top three for all the others. Notably, Stoltman, Hooper, and Canadian Wesley Derwinsky finished tied with a new world record of 7.76 meters in the Keg Toss, the final event of the penultimate day of competition. That broke a standard held by four-time champ Brian Shaw, who officially retired from competitive Strongman last year.

Stoltman positions himself as one of the all-time great World’s Strongest Man competitors with his third title in four years; he’s the first athlete from Great Britain to win three times. He and Hooper have emerged in the last few years as the top athletes in the sport, also sharing the podium at the Arnold Strongman Classic event (which Hooper won in 2023 and 2024). Both athletes are under 30 (Hooper is 28), which should position them – and fans of strength sports – for more tight battles for years to come.

via Men’s Health US

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Build sleeve-bursting biceps with the hammer curl

Brett Williams — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 04:23:18 +0000

BUILDING ARM MUSCLE is about more than just one move. Yes, the dumbbell biceps curl is one of our favourites and worthy of your time and energy, but when you’re ready to progress beyond the basics, there are other exercises – and other muscles in your arms – that should demand your attention. To round out your arms, you’ll need to train your brachialis muscles. To train your brachialis muscles, you’ll need the dumbbell hammer curl.

The dumbbell hammer curl might not look radically different than the standard variation of the movement – in the simplest way to describe both, you hold a dumbbell, raise it up to your shoulder, then lower it back down and repeat – but there are some very important nuances between the two exercises. Let Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. and Brett Williams, NASM guide you through the move’s subtleties, saving you from the bad habits that are keeping you from unlocking your fitness potential.

Benefits of the dumbbell hammer curl

The biggest shift from the standard biceps curl and the hammer curl is in the grip. When you perform a standard curl, you’ll use an underhand (or supinated) grip as you raise the weight up. Your biceps will be the main muscle driving that movement. For the hammer curl, you’ll adjust your position and use a neutral grip. This shifts the focus to the brachialis, another muscle that sits beneath the biceps and is the primary mover for elbow flexion. By making this shift, you’ll get stronger – and your biceps will pop from any brachialis growth, too.

“When we develop our brachialis, it’s going to really help push our biceps up and give us a nice 3D look,” Samuel says.

There’s another big reason to do the hammer curl in addition to the standard biceps curl: You’ll be able to train with heavier loads. Standard curls also train biceps supination (rotating the forearm outward), another function of the muscle. Since you’re not including that rotation with the hammer curl, you’ll have an easier time working with more weight. And as Samuel says: “Bigger weight equals bigger muscles.”

How to do the dumbbell hammer curl

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a pair of dumbbells in a neutral grip (palms facing each other). Squeeze your shoulder blades, abs, and glutes to create full-body tension.
Curl the dumbbell up, moving only at the elbow joint. Keep your upper arms still and perpendicular to the floor. Squeeze your biceps at the top of the movement.
Avoid shifting your elbow forward to keep your shoulders out of the movement.
Lower the weight back down to the starting position under control.

Use this extra insight from Samuel for even more effective reps.

Tighten your whole body

Eb says: This is a curl, but that doesn’t mean your body gets to be in anything close to a lazy position. In order to get the most out of this (or any) curl, you need to make sure you’re moving only at the elbow joint. To insure that, we need to tighten any point where we might cheat. So tighten your glutes and abs, then squeeze your shoulder blades tight, too. That’ll help you erase most of your possible swinging points.

Grip the dumbbells like you mean It

Eb says: Don’t just hold the dumbbells during this curl; actively grip them. Think about really tightening your hands around each dumbbell, holding it tightly. This will grant you more control over the dumbbell, and it’ll also help insure that your brachialis drives the motion. Added bonus: You’ll strengthen your forearms and gripping muscles, too.

Squeeze at The top

Eb says: Curl the dumbbell only as high as it’ll go without forcing you to shift your elbow forward, but once you get there, the curl isn’t done. Once you’re in that position, do your best to squeeze your biceps and arm in general. This little act will force a half-second or so of extra time-under-tension at the top, and it’s going to help you develop a stronger mind-muscle connection. It’ll also help prevent you from swinging.

When in doubt, kneel

Eb says: The most common cheat on any curl is the waist-rocking cheat, where you create motion at your hips to initiate the curling motion. The easy fix to that: Get on your knees.

The position will make you that much more conscious of squeezing your glutes and tightening your abs, which instantly limits your ability to create that waist rock, or other cheats (like arching your back, etc.)

How to add the dumbbell hammer curl to your workout

Add the hammer curl to your upper body or arm day workouts so you can give your brachialis muscles some focused work. Start with 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps with heavier weights than you’d use for a standard curl. For extra volume, use lighter weights but more reps – say 3 to 4 sets of 15 to 20 reps.

This piece was originally seen on Men’s Health U.S.

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The 18 best exercises to sculpt your obliques

Brett Williams — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 00:24:37 +0000

THERE ARE ALL kinds of muscle-fixated guys in your local gym, from top-heavy bench press behemoths and stringer tank-wearing arm day devotees to short, stocky squat and deadlift adherents with tree trunk legs. Off in the corner by the yoga mats is the gym bro who is all about abs, spending most of his dedicated exercise time ripping through rounds of situps, then lifting his shirt to reveal their rippling midsection in the mirror. They might have a good handle on their six-pack muscles (the rectus abdominis), but if they want to forge a functional, strong core that will perform in any type of setting, they’ll need to target their oblique muscles, too.

The obliques, which you might have heard being called “side abs,” take a different approach. You might also have heard that to develop them, you’d have to pile on rep after rep of side bends. This isn’t quite the case; the obliques are more than just the side sections of your core, both in terms of their anatomy and function.

You’ll want to target your obliques with the right exercises, that work key functions of your core that aren’t limited to the flexion and bracing involved in most ab-focused workouts. Take this balanced approach, and your muscles won’t just look good when you shed your shirt—you’ll move better and be stronger, too.

What are your obliques?

The obliques are two pairs of muscles that run along either side of your torso. Each consists of the external oblique, which is the closest to the surface and the largest abdominal muscle, and the internal oblique, which lies directly beneath. The muscle fibres of the external and internal obliques run perpendicular to each other, and they work together.

What your obliques do

Your obliques are responsible for movements like bending from side-to-side and rotating your torso from left to right. They also assist with spinal flexion (the movement you’d typically associate with movements like crunches and situps that target those six-pack muscles). The obliques actively resist against rotation to help stabilise and protect your spine. They’re a key muscle group for stability, a muscle group that gets attacked when you twist and turn, and when you brace in those positions. That means moves like side planks and windmills will challenge your oblique muscles, as will any exercises that have you holding a load off-centre while still trying to keep your hips and shoulders square.

Benefits of training your obliques

Training your obliques can be beneficial for your aesthetic goals and building up a balanced, symmetrical set of core muscles. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Including exercises that target your obliques in your workouts is majorly important for healthy movement and function, too—since you use the muscles for bending, rotation, and spine stabilisation, strong, healthy obliques are important for both athletic performance and everyday activities.

Unfortunately, too many guys only target their oblique muscles with exercises that only factor in one of those functions, if they target their obliques at all. Side bends and plate dips can only go so far in a well-balanced program. You’ll want to break out of that box if you want a strong, functional core. The following exercises train your obliques in all the ways they function, by using uneven loads, instability, or rotation. The result: You’ll challenge your obliques from every angle. Tack on these moves in your workout as is appropriate, or pair three to five of them together for a killer obliques circuit.

Side plank

Why: This is one of the most popular exercises to train your obliques, and for good reason. The plank is a simple, accessible movement, and flipping to the side gives you a potent bracing and stabilisation challenge.

How to Do It:

Lie on one side with your legs straight and prop up your upper body on your forearm. Raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from your head to your heels.
Brace your abs and squeeze your glutes to hold the position.
If you want to make it harder elevate your feet or add a torso rotation.

Sets and reps: 2 to 3 sets of 40 second holds per side

Copenhagen side plank

Why: This slightly-tougher side plank puts even more onus on the obliques.

How to Do It:

Get down on the floor on your side, placing one elbow on the floor stacked directly beneath your shoulder.
Extend your legs out, then rest your weight on the top foot and brace your core to elevate your body off the floor, resting on your elbow and foot.
Drive your bottom knee up, as if you were raising it up to run.
Hold this position, maintaining tension to keep your spine straight and your torso from falling forward, then return to the floor.

Sets and reps: 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 20 second holds per side

Star plank

Why: Add abduction to the equation with this variation of the side plank.

How to Do It:

Start in the side plank position on your side with your elbow on the floor stacked below your shoulder.
Bend your knees together on the floor. Push your elbow and bottom knee into the floor and press upward, raising your top arm and leg up in the air in the shape of a star.
Hold this position for a count, then return to the start.

Sets and reps: 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 20 second holds per side

Plank rotation

Why: Add an rotational element here, giving your obliques a challenge and introducing spinal mobility into the equation,

How to Do It:

Get into a high plank/pushup position, with your hands on the ground directly beneath your shoulders, your feet on the floor in line with your hands, squeezing your glutes and abs to create fully body tension and keep your back level.
Push one hand into the ground, then lift the other off the floor, rotating your torso to reach up to the sky.
Keep your eyes locked onto that hand as you raise up. Pause for a count, then rotate back to the starting position

Sets and reps: 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 20 second holds per side

Copenhagen plank

Why: You’ll need a weight bench (or some other sturdy platform of similar height) for this plank variation, which challenges you to elevate your body above the ground for a tougher stabilisation.

How to Do It:

Get into a side plank position, with your outside foot up on the bench. Squeeze your upper abs, hips, and obliques to keep your hips up and your spine straight.
For the standard variation, keep the leg closer to the ground off the floor.
If you want an additional challenge, you can give the version of the Copenhagen plank add the knee drives with the lower leg.

Sets and reps: 3 sets of 10 to 20 second reps

Suitcase carry

Why: Loaded carries are an underrated core strengthening move as you brace to support the load. This single-arm variation adds an element of anti-rotation, leaning on your obliques to keep your torso upright and balanced.

How to Do It:

Grab a heavy dumbbell in one hand and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Hold it with your palm facing your side and the dumbbell hovering a few inches away from your body.
Brace your abs like you’re about to be punched in the gut and walk for a prescribed distance.

Sets and reps: 3 sets of 30 seconds per side

Pallof press

Why: The Pallof press is an anti-rotation exercise, so the key is keeping your torso totally locked-in. Think of this as a full core move that gets the whole unit involved.

How to Do It:

To start, stand or kneel next to a cable machine or a resistance band tethered to a low anchor point. Set up away from that anchor point far enough that there’s tension.
Hold the handle of the cable or the band in your hands and brace your core and squeeze your glutes.
extend your arms out, fighting against the rotational force to keep your torso stable.
After a count, return to the starting position.

Sets and reps: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps per side

Kettlebell windmill

Why: This exercise might not look like much, but it can be very effective for both core training and as a means to promote better shoulder stability and hip mobility.

How to Do It:

Start in a half-kneeling stance, slightly wider than usual.
Press the kettlebell straight overhead. Keep your ribcage tight by squeezing your abs and glutes.
Look up to the kettlebell, then push your butt back and rotate your chest open as you lower down to the floor. Keep the weight elevated.
Reverse the movement to the upright position.

Sets and reps: 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps per side

Russian twist

Why: Only add this exercise into your ab training if you’re going to do it the right way. Too many guys rush through reps, which isn’t just ineffective—it could put you at risk of injury, too.

How to Do It:

Sit down on the floor or on a mat, keeping your feet on the ground. Your heels should stay on the floor, but your toes can be off the ground. Squeeze your glutes for stability.
Lean back, forming a right angle from your torso relative to your thigh.
Raise your arms out in front of you. Look up at your hands (and the weight, once you progress to working with a load)—you’ll keep your gaze trained there throughout the movement.
Rotate your torso from one side to the other, pausing for a beat in the middle position between each rep. Move slowly, and keep your eyes on the weight. Keep the load out as far as possible to keep the lever long to challenge your abs. Only work within you range of motion; once your hips and knees begin to shift, you’ve gone too far.

Sets and reps: 3 sets of 15 to 20 reps

Goblet squat

Why: The goblet squat is a great way for beginners to learn the basics of the squat—but it can also provide a potent challenge for the obliques once you’re working with heavier loads as you engage your core to stay in position.

How to Do It:

Take a comfortable stance and grab your weight, holding it in front of your chest with both hands.
Squeeze your shoulder blades to create mid-back tension to help support the load.Before you descend into the squat, take a deep breath and brace your core. This will help you to avoid tipping too far forward.
Push your butt back, then bend your knees to squat down as low as you comfortably can while maintaining the proper upright posture. Push your knees out and keep your core engaged; don’t rest your elbows on your knees.
Press off the floor with both feet to stand back up, squeezing your glutes and exhaling at the top.

Sets and reps: 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps

Bear plank chest press

Why: This tweak to the classic cable fly puts your obliques on notice as you battle to keep your hips square to the ground while the resistance pulls you upwards. It’s a solid chest-day finisher that blasts your abs too.

How to Do It:

Set up in a cable machine, holding the handles in a bear plank position.
Perform alternating pressing reps with either arm. Squeeze your abs and glutes to keep your hips and shoulders square.

Sets and reps: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps per arm

Bird dog

Why: This classic stabilisation exercise challenges your obliques. Emphasise the squeeze at the top of each reach, and you’ll feel it.

How to Do It:

Get into a tabletop position with your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips.
Simultaneously lift your left arm and right leg. Pause for 5 to 10 seconds before lowering.
Repeat on the other side.

If you want to make it harder, elevate your knees so they hover just a few inches off of the floor.

Sets and reps: 3 rounds of 8 to 10 reps per side.

Mountain climber

Why: The mountain climber isn’t just an ab movement—it’s an opportunity to hone your running ability. Shift the focus even more directly to your obliques by crossing your knee to your opposite elbow.

How to Do It:

Set up in a high plank (pushup) position, with your hands stacked directly below your shoulders, elbows turned out, and feet just wider than hip-width apart. Your shoulders should be higher than your hips. Think of this as an athletic position.
Squeeze your shoulders, core, and glutes to create full-body tension. Look down at the floor, keeping your head in a neutral position.
Drive one knee up high to your chest, as if you were running. Return your leg to a straight position. Repeat with the other leg.
Continue alternating reps, working to keep your torso in position with your shoulders higher than your hips. Brace your core to stay level.

Sets and reps: 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off for 6 minutes.

Spider-man push-up

Why: Channel a superhero and add even more of a core component with this pushup variation.

How to Do It:

Assume a standard pushup position.
As you lower your body toward the floor, lift your right foot off of the floor, swing your leg out sideways and try to touch your knee to your elbow.
Reverse the movement as you push your body back to the starting position.

Sets and reps: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps per side

Half-bench single-arm press

Why: This seems like a chest exercise, but it’s more than that: By pushing half your torso off the bench, your obliques and abs essentially must serve as an extension of the surface, tightening and bracing to give you a platform from which to press. That’s a ton of anti-rotation work and oblique stress on every single rep.

How to Do It:

Position yourself on the bench holding a single dumbbell. Drive the weight up and hold it in position.
Slide the working side of your body off the bench, so half your body (shoulder, spine, glute) is no longer supported by the back pad.
Squeeze your glutes and abs to keep yourself from tipping over off the bench. Continue maintaining tension throughout the exercise.
Lower the weight down to your chest, the press up for reps.

Sets and reps: 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps per side

Ab-wheel rollout

Why: The ab wheel is a useful tool found in most gyms that gives you the opportunity to work an under appreciated function of your core: anti-extension. This is more than just a gimmick and while it’s especially effective for the rectus abdominis, it hits your whole core (including the obliques).

How to Do It:

Sit on a yoga pad with a wide stance holding the ab wheel with both hands. Keep your head in a neutral position, looking at the ground directly in front of you. Squeeze your shoulder blades, abs, and glutes to create tension.
Turn the pits of your elbows forward to activate your lats and putting your shoulders into external rotation.
Round your back, then press into the floor to roll out as far as you can. Keep your back rounded and avoid any arch.
Pause for a brief count in the fully extended position and squeeze your abs.
Round your back to begin rolling the wheel back slowly. Make sure the wheel is moving before you shift your hips back.

Sets and reps: 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps

Hanging leg raise

Why: This tough hip flexion movement challenges you to work a different way than you would doing situps or crunches. This isn’t only working your obliques—but your whole core will have to work together to do these reps right.

How to Do It:

Grab the bar with a strong overhand grip.
Squeeze your shoulder blades, abs, and glutes to create full-body tension. Your feet should extend out just in front of your torso.
Bend your knees slightly, then curl your legs up. Your butt should show to anyone standing in front of you.
Reverse the movement to the same position you started.

Sets and reps: 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps

Typewriter hanging leg raise

Why: As if the hanging leg raise wasn’t difficult enough, you’ll add a new element that gives your obliques and even tougher task.

How to Do It:

Hang from a bar. Tighten your abs, shifting your pelvis slightly in front of you. Squeeze your shoulder blades and flex your biceps slightly.
Keeping your left leg as straight as possible, bend your right leg. Tighten your abs and pull your right knee to touch your left elbow.
Pause and squeeze.
Swing your right knee across to touch your right elbow, then back to touch your left elbow.
Lower back to the start without letting your legs reach back or arching your back.
That’s 1 rep. Repeat on the other side.

Sets and reps: 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps per side

This story originally appeared on Men’s Health U.S.

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The post The 18 best exercises to sculpt your obliques appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

This dumbbell leg workout builds lower body strength

Brett Williams — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 00:46:16 +0000

WHEN YOU ENVISION a leg day workout, you likely see rows of squat racks, leg presses, and Smith machines in your mind’s eye. All of these pieces of equipment are staples for lower body training, giving you a wide range of resistance to build your quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves. But these aren’t your only options for leg day training – and on the days that you don’t have a whole gym’s worth of space or gear, they’re not going to be the ones you’re able to choose. On those days, reach for a pair of dumbbells for your leg day workout.

Dumbbells are usually available without a long line when you’re in the gym, and they’re the easiest piece of gym equipment to keep at home. Adjustable dumbbells make it much easier to own a wide range of weights, and you can switch them up on the fly without having to walk back and forth to the rack. Whether you’re training at home or in the gym, your dumbbells will likely be the simplest way to add resistance to your training session.

It’s completely possible to build a crushing leg day with just this simple piece of equipment. Check out this four-move dumbbell-only leg workout you can use to build up your wheels.

The dumbbell leg workout

Goblet squat

The goblet squat is all about fundamentals. Thanks to its positioning, the exercise is one of the best ways you can go heavy with a dumbbell. That will be a challenge for your core, so make sure to keep your elbows high, your shoulders engaged, and your back straight. You’ll need to be sure to work within your mobility, too. Go deep, but make sure that you can keep your form strong for every rep.

How to do It:

Grab your dumbbell, and hold it up in a goblet position (more on that below). Keep your chest up. Spread the feet about hip width apart.
Sink the hips down and back to squat down, as if you’re sitting down into a chair. Keep your weight evenly distributed across your foot. Make sure your foot remains in contact with the ground the whole time.
Drop to where your thigh is parallel with the floor. You can drop deeper if your knee and ankle mobility allow for it—so long as your heels don’t come up off the floor.
Squeeze your glutes and push through your feet to return to standing. Keep your knees pointed outward as you push up.

Set and Reps: 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps

Single-leg deadlift

Get unilateral and focus on one leg at a time to work your hamstrings and glutes. Instead of kicking back with your non-working leg and making the exercise a balancing act, only lift your foot off the floor and let it float as you move. Also, make sure that you move within your own range of mobility. You should only be lowering to where you feel your hamstrings tighten; don’t worry about how low your torso goes.

How to do It:

Hold one dumbbell in each hand. Find your balance on one foot, holding the other just slightly off the ground.
Roll the shoulder blades down and back, and squeeze them together to keep your back rigid. Tighten up your core.
Maintain that tighten through your body as you start to push your butt backwards, maintaining a slight bend at the knee. As you hinge, keep the hips and shoulders as square to the floor as possible.
Just before you feel your low back start to round, pause at the bottom and squeeze the glute to return to standing.
Don’t let the back leg hit the ground at any time.

Sets and reps: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps

Reverse lunge

Kick your lunge in reverse, which can be a lower impact option for your front knee than the forward variation. Hold your dumbbells in any of the positions, but make sure that you can handle the load without bending at the torso or slamming your knee on the floor.

How to do It:

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Squeeze your glutes and shoulder blades
Start by holding your dumbbells one in each hand.
Step one leg back and slightly out, landing with your toe first. Work to avoid slamming your knee into the ground. Keep your chest in an upright position, bending your knees to form right angles with both of your legs.
Drive off the ground with your front foot and step your rear leg forward into the starting position. Keep your torso in a solid upright position by squeezing your core to stay balanced.

Sets and reps: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps per side

Lateral lunge

Break out of the sagittal plane (front-to-back movement) with this side-to-side lunge, which puts you in the frontal plane. Try this exercise holding one dumbbell in a goblet position. While you can allow your torso to lean forward slightly as you lunge into position, fight to engage your core to keep the weight from pulling you down too much.

How to do It:

Start standing, holding the dumbbell at your chest, core tight.
Taking a relatively large step out to the right side.
Keeping your left leg straight, bend your right knee and push your butt back, lowering slowly. Your torso may lean forward slightly—that’s okay.
Lower as far as you can comfortably, aiming to get thigh parallel to the ground. Then explosively drive up and to the left, driving back to a standing position.
Repeat on the other side.

Sets and reps: 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps per side

3 ways to hold dumbbells for leg workouts

You may need to approach how you train legs differently when you’re using dumbbells. You might have a tough time loading up for your favourite lower body movements compared to using barbells at first. Depending on the sizes of dumbbells you have access to, you may need to use one or two so you can control how much load you want to use. So, it’s important to understand how to hold the weights.

Front rack – With one or two dumbbells, hold the weights at shoulder height, with the rear head of the dumbbell on your shoulder.

Goblet – Hold one dumbbell by gripping one end of the weight with both hands, with your palms underneath to support it.

Suitcase (hands at sides) – With one or two dumbbells, hold the weights at your side. Grip the handles tightly and let the weight hang, but engage your shoulders to keep your torso upright throughout your movement.

What are the benefits of using dumbbells?

Not only are dumbbells easily accessible, they can provide a unilateral element to weight training that heavyweight gear like straight bars and machines do not. With dumbbells, you’re able to more easily focus on one leg or the other at a time, building one-sided strength that’s important for balance.

Dumbbell training can also help with muscle coordination. Since the weight doesn’t sit on a fixed tract like the Smith or hack squat machines, more muscle recruitment is required to stabilise movement. This allows for mind-muscle connections to strengthen.

Plus, dumbbells have a wide variety of loads, making them useful to novices and experts alike.

Who should do dumbbell leg workouts?

Anyone with a dumbbell handy will benefit from this leg day burn.

Some stripes of gym bros might be more likely to skip out on leg day, but you’ll only shortchange yourself if you don’t make it a focus. Strength training your lower half will help improve your balance and coordination. Having strong legs can improve your speed and explosiveness in performance-related activities, like field sports and running. Strengthening these muscles can also help to protect the hips, knees, and ankles from injury.

Working with dumbbells allows you to move more freely than with other implements and machines, making multi-planar exercises much easier to pull off. You can have a more balanced workout that way, with movements that mimic real life instead of always having both feet down on the ground at the same time.

With a little creativity and plenty of effort, you’ve got plenty of options for exercises.

This story originally appeared on Men’s Health U.S.

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The post This dumbbell leg workout builds lower body strength appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

Why you only need 5 minutes to build big arms

Brett Williams — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 06:29:55 +0000

IF YOUR GOAL is to build big arms, your path to gains is relatively simple: loads of volume for your biceps and triceps. But according to Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., you don’t—and shouldn’t—take an entire day dedicated to training just your arm muscles.

“There’s a whole list of exercises that just have to come before arms,” he says. Other muscle groups will take precedent for a variety of reasons—so you might find yourself running low on time once you get around to the pump-inducing moves that will lead to bi and tri gains.

The solution? Taking shorter, more focused workouts for arm gains. There are multiple approaches to take—and Samuel offers up a simple one here: a five-minute workout that can be tacked onto most other training sessions.

Why You Can Train Arms in Short Periods

>The key to this quick-hitting training approach is that you don’t need to train your arms as heavy as other muscle groups to elicit a growth stimulus. Instead, Samuel says that it’s more important to use lighter weights to focus on the mind-muscle connection. “What you need to do when you train arms is focus on feeling the muscle working on every single rep,” he says. Using heavier weights might actually make it more difficult to accomplish your goals. Many biceps and triceps movements are isolation exercises, which means that the objective is to move only at the target muscle. Once you start working with heavier weights, you’ll find yourself compensating your form to be able to finish the lift, like when you cheat a curl by swinging the weight and shifting your shoulders. Since muscle is your goal, this isn’t what you want to do.

How to Make Your 5-Minute Arm Workout Effective

Since you aren’t working with heavy weights, you can manage the volume you need to grow your arms in shorter rest periods. In Samuel’s preferred setup, you don’t actually rest very much at all—you’ll use supersets, working on one target muscle while resting the other, so you never stop working.

Use Complementary Exercises

The exercises you pair are important. With two straight movements that target the biceps, for example, you’ll fatigue faster without that built-in rest period when you shift focus. Aim for opposing muscle groups: the biceps and triceps. This also makes it simpler to flow from one movement to the next without switching weights.

Train Your Forearms With Intention

There are actually three muscle groups you’ll hit with this type of approach, but you have to focus in to make it truly effective. Grip the dumbbell handles with intent throughout the entire session, and you’ll work the forearms, too.

How Often Can You Do the 5-Minute Arm Workout

One of the great things about your arm muscles is that you can handle a great deal of volume. Samuel says that you can tack this series onto the end of training days that target other muscle groups without putting yourself at risk of overtraining. You can slot this in three to four times per week, especially if building big arm muscles is one of your main training objectives.

“I would think about putting this at the end of any of your upper body workouts,” he says. “Or, if you break things down into push-pull-legs, think about doing it at the end of a pull workout and you can also do it at the end of a push workout. We’re already touching arms during those upper body sessions, so we might as well end up finishing them off.”

The 5-Minute Arm Workout

How to Do It: You’ll need an incline bench (set to a 60 to 75 degree angle), a set of medium-weight dumbbells (you can curl this weight for 10 to 12 reps without failure), and a five-minute timer.

For the first 2:20 of the period, you’ll alternate between exercise 1A and 1B with no rest. You should be aiming to finish three rounds within that timeframe. After you’ve hit that mark, adjust your bench to a flat position for the second superset, exercises 2A and 2B. Finish through alternating between those two movements for the remainder of the period.

Don’t be concerned if you find yourself struggling to finish every rep of each set, especially as the time is close to complete. “It’s less about how many rounds you get and more about just continuing to move and pile up really good squeezes,” Samuel says. “By the end, you might only be getting four to five reps.”

If you feel like you still have more to give, rest for two minutes, then repeat the cycle.

1A. Incline Dumbbell Curl

Why: This exercise is particularly effective thanks to the seated position on the bench. You’ll put your biceps in a stretched position with your arms behind your torso, allowing you to work through a full-range of motion with each curl.

How to Do It:

Sit in the bench, keeping your lower back flush to the pad and your butt on the seat.
Hold a pair of dumbbells in each hand, allowing the weight to hang. Your elbows should be behind your torso, in line with your shoulders.
Curl the weight up, moving only at your elbows. Control the tempo and feel your biceps working. Make sure that you don’t use momentum to lift the weight or shift your shoulders or elbows forward.
Lower the weight down under control.

Sets and Reps: 10 to 12 reps

1B. Incline Overhead Triceps Extension

Why: You’ll challenge elbow extension, the main function of the triceps. Since you’re in the seated position you’ll be able to work through a full range of motion with this exercise as well.

How to Do It:

Shift your body upwards on the incline bench into a standing position with your knees slightly bent, still keeping your back on the pad. Keep your shoulders, abs, and glutes engaged to keep your posture strong.
Press the dumbbells straight up overhead, holding them with a neutral grip (palms facing each other).
Lower the dumbbells back down behind your head, moving only at the elbows. Descend as low as is comfortable.
Extend your elbows to lift the dumbbells back overhead.

Sets and Reps: 10 to 12 reps

2A. Dumbbell Skull Crusher

Why: Double up on the triceps with a move that demands that you work from strict upper arm position.

How to Do It:

Lie back on the bench, holding your dumbbells in a neutral grip. Drive your shoulders into the bench, then squeeze your shoulders, abs, and glutes.
Press the weight straight up, then shift your upper arms so that you’re at a 92 degree angle relative to your torso.
Moving only at the elbows, lower the weights down toward your head.
Extend your arms back to the starting position, squeezing your triceps.

Sets and Reps: 10 to 12 reps

2B. Seated Dumbbell Biceps Curl

Why: You’ll get more biceps work—and again, it’s important to focus on keeping your upper arm angle in the right position.

How to Do It:

Sit in a tall position on the bench, keeping your shoulders, abs, and glutes squeezed to create full-body tension. Hold the weights in your hands with your arms hanging down the sides of the bench.
Curl both weights up, moving only at the elbows. Work to keep your upper arms still so that you don’t swing the weights or get the shoulders involved.
Squeeze your biceps at the top of the movement, then lower down with control.

Sets and Reps: 10 to 12 reps

via menshealth.com

Bigger arms in 5 minutes

The post Why you only need 5 minutes to build big arms appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

How to properly do the dumbbell biceps curl

Brett Williams — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 01:11:30 +0000

YOU CAN CONSTRUCT a workout plan using overly-involved gym set-ups, fancy, high-tech tools and machines, and complicated exercises, but no matter how much effort you put into the window dressing, the simplest way to build big arms will be to do exercises like dumbbell biceps curls.

This is a gold standard of isolation exercises and the go-to muscle move for just about anyone who’s ever hoisted a dumbbell. Whether you’re standing in front of a mirror at a dumbbell rack, running through reps, or sweating through a home workout with a pair of adjustable weights, the biceps curl will fit into your workout routine. There’s something elemental about the movement—who hasn’t flexed in front of their bathroom mirror?

The dumbbell biceps curl’s simplicity makes it an excellent fit for almost all types of exercisers—but that also means that sometimes, guys don’t stay focused on the finer points of proper form. There’s more to the movement than just cranking the weights up to shoulder height and dropping back down.

Let Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., guide you through the dumbbell biceps curl’s subtleties, saving you from the bad habits that are keeping you from unlocking your big arm potential.

Benefits of the dumbbell biceps curl

The main aim of the dumbbell biceps curl is to build muscle. This is an isolation exercise, which means that you’re focusing on one specific muscle (in this case, unsurprisingly given the name, the biceps). This also means that you can use a high volume of reps to target the muscle, since you won’t be fatiguing as early as you might when performing heavyweight compound exercises. You won’t be able to work as heavy as those movements, but that’s okay.

You’ll also work through the two main functions of the biceps: elbow flexion (bending your arms) and supination (rotating your forearms). When you use proper form, you’ll do both, stimulating muscle growth and flooding the muscle with blood for a pump.

Which muscles the dumbbell biceps curl targets

You won’t be shocked to know that you’re going after the biceps when you perform this exercise—it’s right there in the name, after all. Since this is an isolation movement, your aim will be to keep the focus squarely on these muscles and not compensating with a hip swing or shifting your shoulders to help with the load.

That’s not to say that there are zero secondary beneficiaries of the curl. If you’re strict with your form, you’ll also hit your forearm muscles when you grip the handles of the dumbbells with intent.

How to do the dumbbell biceps curl

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a pair of dumbbells in a neutral grip (palms facing each other). Squeeze your shoulder blades, abs, and glutes to create full-body tension.
Curl the dumbbell up, moving only at the elbow joint. Keep your upper arms still and perpendicular to the floor.
As you curl up, rotate the dumbbell inward so that your palm faces the sky. The weight should be parallel to the floor by the time you reach the halfway point.
Continue raising the weight up, squeezing the biceps at the top of the movement.
Lower the weight back down with control.

Use this extra insight from Samuel to inform your reps.

Stand straight

Eb says: Be aware of your posture. It’s one of the prime things people neglect on a curl. You want to squeeze your shoulder blades, squeeze your glutes, and and contract your abs. Keeping your scapulae retracted and depressed is critical in the long term; it’ll can help you avoid any impingement issues.

Keep your shoulders out of It

Eb says: Focus on keeping your upper arm perpendicular to the ground at all times. You’ll see a lot of guys getting their shoulders involved in a curl, rocking their elbows forward. That allows the shoulder to get involved in the movement. By working to keep your upper arms perpendicular to the ground, you force all the movement to occur at the elbow joint. One of the chief functions of the biceps is to flex at the elbow.”

Stay in rotation

Eb says: Make sure to rotate that weight early. The oft-forgotten function of the biceps: rotating your forearm so your pinky is toward the sky. To truly and effectively train the biceps, you’ll want to curl the weight upwards and rotate the dumbbell upwards. Start that rotation early, before your forearm is parallel to the ground. By doing that, you insure that you’re keeping the curl focused on your biceps and not the brachialis. And keep attacking that rotation for the life of the curl: You should finish each curl by twisting as aggressively as you can at the very top.

How to add the dumbbell biceps curl to your workouts

This is a gold-standard movement that you can add to all kinds of workouts. Curls are key movements for any upper body or pull day splits, and if you train with a split that focuses on one body part or muscle group per day, you’ll do curls when you hit arms.

Since you won’t be using super heavy weights, you can program the dumbbell biceps curl at the back end of your workouts, after the heavier compound movements. To add more volume, consider supersets with a triceps exercise or drop sets.

If you’re simply getting a pump on, that’s fine too. Samuel suggests training with the dumbbell biceps curl twice a week for three sets of 12 reps.

This story originally appeared on Men’s Health U.S

Here’s Why Michael Jordan’s PT Had The NBA Star Doing Bicep Curls

The Hemsworth vs Momoa biceps beef is threatening to boil over

The post How to properly do the dumbbell biceps curl appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

How to do planks with proper form

Brett Williams — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 22:00:48 +0000

JUST ABOUT EVERY core routine ever created has one move in common: the plank.

The ab training staple is relatively simple—boiled down to the basics, all you need to do is get down on the ground and hold in place, after all—so everyone from newbie exercisers to ripped experts can do it. It’s also scalable. Whether you remove a point of contact with the floor, shorten or lengthen the lever, or add a load, you can change the plank to level up its difficulty. You can even flip onto the side to shift its focus.

But there’s a difference between just doing a plank and doing an effective plank. You can’t just prop yourself up on your elbows and expect that your core will be the stronger for it. There are subtleties and form cues you’ll need to follow to do it right. Proper planking is tougher than typically advertised.

The key to a good plank? Tension. You won’t be able to create the level of tension needed for effective planking without rock-solid fundamentals. And once you’ve established the proper form, you can’t just assume that you’ll be able to hold that position for minutes on end. Once you understand these things, you’ll be on your way to a stronger, more stable core.

The Benefits of Doing Planks

The plank is so effective because you’re harnessing one of your core’s most key functions: bracing.

Bracing in this case refers to the act of creating stability between the shoulder and hips. This is done to create intra-abdominal pressure to protect your spine. The plank is also important because you’ll want to recreate the same posture and position during other exercises, like squats, deadlifts, and even kettlebell swings.

Muscles Worked By Planks

You’ll engage your entire core when you do planks the right way. That means what you usually think of as your abs (abdominis rectus), the transverse abdominis, and obliques, but also your low back muscles and glutes, which are key to keeping yourself in the proper posture.

How Long to Hold a Plank

Contrary to popular belief, you’ll be better off holding a plank for 30 seconds with proper form than for five minutes with sloppy form.

That’s because the key for bracing is the tension you can create, and your ability to maintain the level of tension needed for gains decreases the longer you hold on. Your planks should only last as long as you can hold perfect form with maximum tension, which won’t be very long until you’ve reached high levels of fitness. Even then, your upper level will be about one minute, or two if endurance is your goal.

How to Do a Plank

Follow these form cues to learn how to do a perfect plank. Once you’ve read the step-by-step directions, follow along for some higher-level tips from Samuel to dive deeper into the exercise.

Get down on the ground. Stack your elbows directly beneath your shoulders and extend your legs. Rest your weight on your elbows and your toes.
Squeeze your glutes and core to create full-body tension. Think about pulling your belly button into your spine.
Contract your low back, lats, and rhomboids. Your back should form a straight line; don’t let your pelvis dip down or your butt to rise up.
Face your gaze face down, which keeps your neck in a neutral position.

This Is a Full-body Move

Eb says: The plank can be as easy or hard as you make it; it’s your job to make it hard to get the most out of it. That means creating full-body tension. You want your whole body rigid for the plank, so you should maintain some tension in your shoulder blades, drive your upper arms, from elbows to shoulders, perfectly perpendicular to the ground, maintain a ton of tension through your core (obviously) and squeeze your quads to straighten your knees. It’s better to hold a truly focused plank for 30 seconds to a minute than to hold a lousy plank for 4 consecutive minutes.

Squeeze Your Glutes

Eb says: If there’s one thing people forget to involve in the plank, it’s their glutes. And that leads to the most common flaw you see in a plank: the butt being the highest point in the plank and the loss of a truly flat back. You avoid this by actively squeezing your glutes: That’ll drive your hips into a cleanly neutral position and help you maintain a truly straight line from shoulders down through legs.

Maintain Upper Back Tension

Eb says: You want to keep a flat back, parallel to the ground, when you plank. Think about letting somebody eat dinner on your back; that’s how flat it should be. To do that, you need a sturdy base from shoulders through upper arms. Actively drive your elbows into the ground and try to keep your upper arms perpendicular to the ground the entire time. Then lightly squeeze your shoulder blades together, too. They shouldn’t be fully squeezed (that’ll contribute to some core sagging), but you should maintain upper back tension.

Flex Your Abs

Eb says: This is typically an ab exercise, after all, so attack it like one. Don’t just keep your core tight, but flex your abs, and work to feel them working. Think about using them to keep your ribcage closed; that’ll engage the entire core complex and make this a better workout.

How to Add Planks to Your Workouts

You can work on your plank form any time you train. Start with four rounds of holds for 30 seconds up to a minute—as long as you can hold perfect form.

5 Key Plank Variations

Iron Cross Plank

How to Do It:

Extend your arms out to each side, palms flat on the ground facing out away from you.
Squeeze your chest, core, and glutes to hold the position.

Shoulder Tap Plank

How to Do It:

Assume the high plank pushup position with your palms flat on the floor.
Intermittently reach up with one hand to tap the opposite shoulder, bracing your core to keep your torso and hips from dipping as you move.

Long-Lever Plank

How to Do It:

Extend your arms out directly in front of you, with your palms flat on the ground facing out in front.
Squeeze your abs hard to keep your hips up.

Plank Reach

How to Do It:

Assume plank position with your palms flat on the floor.
Intermittently extend one arm to reach out in front of you.
Brace your core to keep your torso and hips from dipping as you move.

Uneven Plank

How to Do It:

Extend one arms out directly in front of you, with your palm flat on the ground facing out in front.
Extend the other arm out to the side, with your palm flat on the ground facing away from you.

via menshealth.com

The post How to do planks with proper form appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

Let’s Talk About Brad Pitt’s Fight Club Body

Brett Williams — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 03:22:14 +0000

For nearly 500 years, Michelangelo’s David stood in tribute to the ideal male form, and it took Brad Pitt less than 20 seconds to destroy it. For the uninitiated, the moment comes about 45 minutes into his 1999 movie Fight Club, when Pitt’s character, Tyler Durden, takes a turn in the underground fighting ring he helped create. After pummeling his opponent into the floor, Durden rises, shirtless and bloody, exposing his full physique to the audience. And we haven’t looked away since.

Perhaps that’s because while the statue of David is all about perfectly proportional muscles and rippling abs, Durden looked both powerful and degenerate. He was a hard-drinking, chain-smoking antihero with jagged abs shaped like sharks’ teeth and a crazy-low level of body fat.

The film flopped – at least initially – returning just over half of its $67 million budget in the US. And yet the Brad Pitt Fight Club Body has attained near mythological status among men of all stripes. In the early aughts, Pitt’s lean and chiselled look appeared on posters that plenty of guys hung up in their dorm rooms. (I’ll admit, I had one.) A decade later, the movie had become a cult classic and cultural flash point, selling enough DVDs that the special edition was reissued, while in 2013 actor Charlie Hunnam became the first of many leading men to publicly point out how nearly impossible it would be to match Pitt’s physical standard in that role.

Granted, part of Brad Pitt’s ultra-shredded appeal may have been that he was appearing on the heels of two decades of muscle-bound beefcakes like Arnold and Sly, who presented their own unattainable caricatures of masculinity. Unlike the Terminator or Rambo, Durden was a soap salesman who fought against normal stuff – or, rather, our resignation
to complacency and (in his eyes at least) emasculating social norms. Sometimes that meant brawling with random guys in a bar basement, although eventually it led to a darker scheme to free others from our cultural fixation
on money as a measure of self-worth.

“Self-improvement is masturbation.”
Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden during the now classic Fight Club basement scene.
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But Pitt wasn’t trying to create a fitness ideal like the Hemsworths and Wahlbergs of today, who market themselves as walking wellness brands. It was one part of one character in one movie in a career that contains multitudes. Still, the Durden obsession continues in Hollywood, with stars like Kumail Nanjiani, Dax Shepard and Rob McElhenney all holding up Pitt’s Fight Club body as their own inspiration or ideal.

“When that movie came out, there was absolutely a shift,” says Roberto Olivardia, a lecturer in psychology at Harvard Medical School and a coauthor of The Adonis Complex: The Secret Crisis of Male Body Obsession, who helped coin the term “muscle dysmorphia”. “I started hearing with my patients that the goal wasn’t to look like Muscle & Fitness. It was more around Brad Pitt.” Thousands of people still Google some variation of “Brad Pitt Fight Club” every month, with thousands also searching for his workout, according to Semrush, an analytics company that tracks the popularity of online search terms.

Pitt’s first rule of the Fight Club Body may be that he’s no longer interested in talking about the Fight Club Body. (He did not respond to our request for an interview.) But plenty of others affected by the movie still fixate on it. Once we tracked them down, they confirmed just how enduring and problematic the illusory standard has become. It turns out there are really three main components to the allure, and like the movie itself, each affects our view of a healthy male body image in more complicated ways than you may think.

When McElhenney and Nanjiani appeared on Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast in March 2020, McElhenney shared that the Fight Club Body is still “the primo, number-one all-time body” that his own celebrity trainer has told him guys want to achieve. Shepard agreed and even fanboyed out over the now GIF-able basement scene. “Before the shirt comes off, you’re not really noticing very much,” he said. “But when the shirt comes off, you’re like, ‘Oh Jesus’.” Their entire conversation continued with at least some awareness of the absurdity: at one point, Nanjiani said the actor appears “pretty small” but great, even though that’s the opposite of the superhero idols of today, who are, as McElhenney once put it, “fucking jacked”.

Therein may lie the biggest appeal for normal guys: unlike the supreme swoleness of someone like Arnie, Pitt’s physique isn’t about getting outrageously bigger; it’s about honing what you’ve already got under the shirt. In theory, that could make his transformation seem more doable to some men – that is, until you consider exactly who you’re watching. “I have a feeling that this motherfucker kind of walks around looking like that,” McElhenney joked on the podcast.

Don Saladino, NASM, a celebrated personal trainer who has trained Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman and others, says many of his clients still show up seeking that look, too. But McElhenney’s jokes may have some truth to them: Saladino calls Pitt an “ectomorph”, which means his lean frame doesn’t carry much body fat naturally. So he’s got a head start when getting chiselled. As Mike Runyard, the film’s stunt coordinator, told Men’s Health in a 2016 story about the movie: “Brad just turned up looking like that. That was his deal. I didn’t do anything with him. I saw him using hand weights on set, but that was it.”

In Fight Club, Pitt’s durden is explicitly anti-fitness.
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Saladino guesses that the actor also likely went through a “cut” – a period in which bodybuilders and other athletes limit macronutrients and water to lose mass, which can create an ultra-lean, muscular look but comes with side effects, including weakness, irritability, even hormone imbalances and/or suppressed immune function. All of which is to say, there’s a level of genetics and stunt dieting that probably makes the Fight Club Body not achievable for most guys without proper coaching, even though plenty have wrecked themselves in pursuit of it.

The exact routine that Pitt used to achieve his Fight Club physique hasn’t ever been confirmed and is pretty inconsequential. If you’re seeking to reshape your body in a healthy way, hard work and consistency are far more important than a proprietary fitness plan, says Duffy Gaver, author of Hero Maker and the trainer who helped Pitt bulk up for 2004’s Troy. Gaver thinks Pitt’s true superpower is his motivation. “People have this desire to feel special. Like I got a special car, I got special clothes, I got special stuff. I have a special trainer that has a special workout,” he says. “The idea that there’s a special workout out there is just a fucking marketing thing for the industry to sell you shit.” Tyler Durden couldn’t have said it better himself.

The glare of Pitt’s own fame likely made both his onscreen physique and Durden as a character seem even more appealing. When the film first dropped, “[Pitt] was this real, kind of god-level movie star you don’t see anymore,” says Brian Raftery, author of Best. Movie. Year. Ever., which explores the landmark films of 1999 as a pop-cultural turning point.

Pitt had become a heartthrob immediately with his breakthrough role in 1991’s Thelma & Louise and by 1995 was displaying range in thrillers like Se7en and 12 Monkeys. Toss in some high-profile tabloid romances, and by the time Fight Club appeared in 1999, Pitt had been named People’s Sexiest Man Alive once already, something he’d repeat in 2000. Today he’s the kind of actor (and producer) who, even in his 50s, can still wow audiences both in serious roles and with his shirt off. He did both in 2019’s Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood, 20 years after Fight Club, to earn his first onscreen Oscar, for best supporting actor. Check out IMDb and you can see that Pitt’s had plenty of other thirsty roles. (Gaver even made Pitt’s workouts for Troy available online and in his book, but the Brad PittAchillesBodyhas never quite taken off.)

Perhaps that’s because Fight Club’s Tyler Durden seems like someone you could conceivably sit next to on a plane and wind up becoming friends with, even if he’s played by Pitt. He has everything an impressionable young man could want – the stylishly absurd wardrobe, marathon sex sessions with Helena Bonham Carter’s Marla Singer, and no scruples about his behaviour – but he doesn’t make those things feel beyond the audience’s reach, either. “People walking out of Fight Club weren’t thinking, Boy, Tyler Durden is really a dangerous person to emulate, and Edward Norton’s character’s really not well,” Raftery says. “They walked out thinking, Man, Tyler Durden is cool, and Brad Pitt looks awesome, and that’s who I really want to be.”

Pitt as Durden in Fight Club is explicitly anti-fitness.
20TH CENTURY STUDIOS

It helps that Durden is no superhero. The character is even explicitly anti–fitness regimen, chain-smoking throughout the film. In one scene, immediately before his shirtless fight, Durden and Edward Norton’s narrator critique a Gucci underwear ad on a bus, with Durden scoffing at the male models. (A nice sentiment, even if it is coming from Brad Pitt.)

Rather than honing his muscles, Durden is more concerned with using them – the same view held by adherents of functional fitness, yoga and MMA training, all pursuits that have since risen to prominence in the fitness industry. A comment Pitt made to CNN in 1999, responding to critics’ complaints about the film’s violent themes, echoed this ethos. “The idea is just to get in there, have an experience, take a punch, more importantly, and see how you come out on the other end – test yourself,” he said.

Pitt humanised that experience so well that Durden became unforgettable. “When people talk about chemistry onscreen, they’re usually talking about two people, how they get along,” says Raftery. “But there’s also chemistry between the performer and the character they play, where it becomes so inseparable that if you were to see Brad Pitt walking down the street a couple weeks after Fight Club came out, would you think that’s Brad Pitt? Or would you think that’s Tyler Durden?”

There’s one more aspect to the Fight Club Body that men may envy, even if it’s not immediately easy to pinpoint. “There was actually something even more threatening about [Durden] than Hulk Hogan,” says Olivardia, the Harvard psychologist, calling back to a longtime body-dysmorphic trigger. “[Pitt’s] body really communicated this message of functionality.”

Especially by the end of the film, when Norton’s and Pitt’s characters finally face off: Durden appears to carry himself like an accomplished fighter, seamlessly switching between martial-arts stances. At one point he holds his arms out wide, as though inviting anyone to stop him.

Pitt reportedly took boxing and tae kwon do classes with Norton to prepare for his fights. He’s since continued such hands-on training whenever a role demands it (see: Snatch, Troy and even Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood). “He put in a lot of time, as he does with all his movies,” says Robert Alonzo, a stunt coordinator who helped Pitt develop the hand-to-hand chops needed to play stuntman and former soldier Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood. “He’s very committed, and so obviously the proof is in the pudding. You see it onscreen.”

Onscreen, Pitt’s level of physical comfort and flow comes off as something else. Even way back with Durden, he had swagger (long before that term became overused). It’s like he’s constantly aware of his body and what it can do. I know about that feeling because, years after that Fight Club poster came down from my wall, I took up Muay Thai, training four to six days a week for four years. Over time, the sport taught me that you don’t need to beat someone down to feel stronger. If you can focus on technique and keep your primal urges in check, you’ll gain an almost palpable sense of self-control. That’s something I recognise in Pitt’s performance.

For those still interested in the Fight Club Body, you should also know that Pitt admittedly smoked as much off-screen as he did in character. How he looked and how he felt were two different things. “Even Brad would tell me he was smoking heavily, which is one of the reasons he was so lean,” says Gaver, who adds that Pitt quit cigarettes when they worked together. “He couldn’t throw more than a few punches till he had to lean on something and catch his breath. It’s funny that probably one of the most iconic physiques that people aspire to was, at that time, wildly unhealthy.”

Don’t forget the biggest irony, which is that Tyler Durden didn’t even exist to begin with. (After two decades, you can only blame yourself if that’s a spoiler.) Towards the end of the movie, we learn that he’s a figment of the narrator’s imagination. The whole film is a satire on the state of modern masculinity, with Norton’s character representing Who We Are and Pitt’s character the dangers of Who We Want to Be. Many people have misinterpreted that, including members of the alt-right and men’s movements, some of whom misread the toxicity as justification for their warped views. But Pitt and Norton famously laughed through most of the movie’s Venice Film Festival world premiere. The Fight Club Body wasn’t supposed to inspire us. It was part of a much darker joke.

—

This story appears in the November 2022 issue of Men’s Health.

The post Let’s Talk About Brad Pitt’s Fight Club Body appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.