Author: Michael Kamalu

Aloha and Welcome to Week 10 ofFitness-Tip Friday! Tip of the Week: 4 Reasons Why Dumbbell Bench Press is BETTER Than Barbell Bench Press! 1.Dumbbells have much higher stability requirements through every phase of the bench press motion, giving you a better workout on all the stabilizing & synergistic muscles  (clavicular and costal heads of pectoralis major [“upper” & “lower” chest], pectoralis minor,…

Aloha and Welcome to Week 9 ofFitness-Tip Friday! Tip of the Week:Fix This Common (& Dangerous) Shoulder Exercise Mistake! NEVER perform upright rows where your hands trail down below your elbows at the top of the rep! That forces a combination of abduction (arms raised to the side) and internal rotation (shoulder joint turned inwards) that pinches the rotator cuff and leads to dozens of impingement-related injuries. (See “Bad Form”…

Aloha and Welcome to Week 8 ofFitness-Tip Friday! Tip of the Week:(Awesome) Anatomy-Based Quad-Building Technique!Anatomy: The quadriceps muscles (“quads”) are comprised of four muscles: rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and vastus intermedius. Of those, rectus femoris is unique because it crosses BOTH the knee joint AND the hip joint. So while the other three only extend the knee……

Aloha and Welcome to Week 7 ofFitness-Tip Friday! Tip of the Week:General “Bicep Curl” Grip Rules: Performing curls with a HAMMER (aka neutral) grip will preferentially work the brachialis and brachioradialis over the biceps brachii. Performing curls with a SUPINATED grip will preferentially work the biceps brachii and brachialis over the brachioradialis. Performing curls while starting with a hammer grip and then actively SUPINATING your…

Aloha and Welcome to Week 6 ofFitness-Tip Friday!(Sorry this one’s a day late – it’s been a crazy week for me!) Tip of the Week:It IS possible to preferentially target the “lower abs” (inferior region of rectus abdominis)¹, even though the muscle fibers are activated along their entire length, due to a principle called nonhomogenous hypertrophy². You do it…

Aloha and Welcome to Week 5 ofFitness-Tip Friday! Tip of the Week:Agonist-antagonist (aka reciprocal) superset training has been shown to be more efficient at improving strength and power than “traditional” weight training. It also burns more calories per minute of exercise and yields much higher excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (see my last YouTube video for more info on…

Aloha and Welcome to Week 4 ofFitness-Tip Friday! Tip of the Week:Incorporating UNILATERAL (one-sided) exercises into a resistance training regimen increases muscular hypertrophy and 1-rep maximum strength faster than only using BILATERAL exercises. It can also preserve muscle strength and size on the contralateral (non-worked) side in the event of injury or immobilization to that…

Aloha and Welcome to Week 3 ofFitness-Tip Friday! Tip of the Week:Training using high-intensity ECCENTRIC contractions (aka “negatives”, where the weight is moving in the opposite direction of the force you’re applying) has been shown to elicit greater improvements in muscle size, strength, power, and speed than standard CONCENTRIC contractions of the same intensity.Be sure to include eccentric training…