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Nick Nilsson is the Director
of Online Operations for Staley Training Systems. He has
a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been
inventing powerful new training techniques for more than
18 years.
Nick is the author of a number
of bodybuilding eBooks (listed below) all available by clicking
here and has written for a variety of publications
including Men's Fitness, Reps, Musclemag, Bodybuilding.com
and many others. He can be contacted at nick@staleytraining.com.
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Articles
- 2008 Archive
One
Side Loaded Barbell Squats
By Nick
Nilsson
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This exercise is a
very simple but VERY effective way to really hit
your core strongly. It looks like squat, stands
like a squat, and IS a squat but it doesn't really
work the legs!
Pretty simply, you're
going to just load ONE side of the bar with 25 to
45 lbs or so. Start towards the lighter end until
you get an idea of how the balance on this exercise
works.
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Low-Pulley
Push-Ups
By Nick
Nilsson
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Push-ups are obviously
a classic exercise - when you think bodyweight training,
it's usually one of the first exercises you think
of.
But, of course, I've
got a new twist on the regular push-up that will
just TRASH your pecs...much better than regular
push-ups even though the exercise is pretty much
exactly the same!
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Zercherish
Front Squats
By Nick
Nilsson
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This exercise is not
quite a Zercher squat (where you hold the barbell
cradled in the crooks of your elbows, down by your
stomach) and not quite a front squat. It's basically
a combination of BOTH, where you're supporting in
the crooks of your elbows but at shoulder height
like a front squat. This
hits the abdominal wall HARD...
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Ballistic
Bench Press Warm-Up
By Nick
Nilsson
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When you do a typical
bench press rep, it's a little known fact that a
good percentage of the last part of the movement
(as you come to lockout) is used by the body to
decelerate the bar. The lighter the weight you use,
the greater this percentage is. The heavier you
go, the lower this percentage is.
I'm going to show
you to warm-up to minimize that inhibition...admittedly,
it doesn't SOUND glamorous but it can immediately
increase your bench press numbers!
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Barbell
Pike Handstand Push-Ups
By Nick
Nilsson
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Bodyweight exercises
are a special breed. They're just so effective for
building functional strength and and muscle mass.
This exercise is no exception.
If you're familiar
with the handstand push-up, you know how
stupid hard it is to do properly and with full range
reps, especially the very first time you do them.
THIS variation is going to fix that...
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here to keep reading...
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Seated
Deadlifts - Attack Your Lower Back!
By Nick
Nilsson
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So I know you're already
thinking, how in the heck can a person do deadlifts
in a seated position? Easy! You just need something
to sit down on...
But first, what's
the point of doing deadlifts in a seated position?
Well, this is an especially useful exercise when
you want to directly train the lower back for the
top half of the deadlift. If you have trouble with
the lockout portion, this is a great exercise to
work at.
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here to keep reading...
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One
Arm Barbell Stiff-Legged Deadlifts
By Nick
Nilsson
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The Stiff-Legged Deadlift
is one of the best posterior-chain exercises you
can do (posterior chain is all the muscle running
down the back of your body from the traps, spinal
erectors, glutes, hams, down to calves). There are
plenty of variations of it out there but here's
one you may not have seen before...
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Power
Rack Weighted Push-Ups
By Nick
Nilsson
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This is a GREAT technique
to add resistance to the push-up while getting the
fiber-activating bodyweight-exercise benefits of
the push-up at the same time!...
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Donkey
Barbell Squats For MONSTER Legs
By Nick
Nilsson
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This is an INCREDIBLE
leg exercise. Let me just say that up front. If
you're looking for a way to truly trash your legs,
this one will push you right to the edge. It
allows you to use extremely heavy weight but in
such a manner that you can hit failure at the BOTTOM
and be done with the set by just falling down, rather
than with a standard squat where you have to get
the bar up to the top and re-rack it. Not necessary
here. You can push till you fall down, which to
my mind, makes it a great leg exercise :)
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Nilsson
Curls - The Best Bicep Exercise EVER...
By Nick
Nilsson
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If you want to TRULY
maximize your bicep mass, you're going to LOVE this
exercise. It's one of my very favorite for building
biceps. The
reason I named it after myself is that it basically
summarizes what I'm all about - doing everything
completely "backwards" and getting MUCH
better results!..
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here to keep reading...
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Bar-on-Back
Close Grip Push-Ups
By Nick
Nilsson
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I'm a big fan of bodyweight
exercises...they're among THE most effective exercises
for building functional strength and mass.
But what do you do
when bodyweight just isn't enough to keep on getting
growth and strength increases? One of the ways I
like to tackle that is to find ways to actually
add weight to exercises that would normally only
be bodyweight.
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Swiss
Ball Get-Ups With Barbell, Dumbells & Kettlebells
By Nick
Nilsson
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You may have heard
of an exercise knows as the Turkish Get-Up.
It's a simple exercise. Basically, you start
from lying on the floor and holding a dumbell
up at arms length. Now, keeping that dumbell
at arms length, you get up to a standing position.
This is a great exercise for developing real-world
strength...
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Sideways
Barbell End Lunges
By Nick
Nilsson
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This is an excellent
one for developing the lateral aspect of the hips
and thighs. It's basically a lunge (or more accurately,
a step-back lunge) movement. But instead of holding
dumbells in your hands or a weight across your back,
you're going to be using a whole NEW type of set-up...
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Time/Volume
Training For Mass
By
Nick Nilsson
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This is a great training
concept that I've been using recently that I came
up with as a way to get mass-building effects out
of bodyweight exercises that I could do a lot of
reps with. It's a type of training you could easily
build a more comprehensive program on simply by
extending the concept.
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Barbell-Down-the-Back
Donkey Calf Raises
By
Nick Nilsson
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The Donkey Calf Raise
is simply one of THE best exercises for developing
the calves. The reason is the great stretch you
can put on the calves at the bottom of every single
rep. But here's the problem...what do you do when
you don't have a donkey calf raise machine OR a
partner to sit on your back
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Dumbell
Rotational Sets For ROCK-SOLID Core Strength
By
Nick Nilsson
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Honestly, I had no
idea what to call this one - feel free to make up
your own name! It's a GREAT core-strengthening exercise
that hits the rotational and support functions of
the area...
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Make
Your Own Thick Handles
By
Nick Nilsson
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One of the single
most effective ways to build hand and grip strength
is by using thick handled equipment. It's one of
the secrets of building a strong grip! You
can buy thick bars and thick handled dumbells but
what do you do if can't afford to buy those things
or train in a commerical gym and don't want to bring
your own equipment...
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Flexed
Arm Hanging Leg Raises To TRASH Your Abs...in a GOOD Way....
By
Nick Nilsson
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The hanging leg raise
is one of the most commonly used lower ab exercises
you'll see in the gym. As tough as it is, it can
be done much more effectively with a small modification.
Instead of hanging
down with your arms straight, do the hanging leg
raise in the Flexed Arm Hang position!
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here to keep reading...
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Shoulder
Dumbell Squats - Legs, Core, Shoulders, This Hits It ALL...
By
Nick Nilsson
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This is a great leg
and core exercise - VERY challenging even though
you're using lighter dumbells than you normally
could for a "standard" dumbell squat.
Basically, with this exercise, you're not going
to hold the dumbells at your sides at arms length
(which I've also thought was more of a dumbell deadlift
anyway, rather than a squat, which is what a lot
of people call it)...
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Barbell-Braced
Stiff-Legged Deadlifts - MAXIMIZE Your Hams
By
Nick Nilsson
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Stiff-Legged Deadlifts
are one of THE best lower body exercises you can
do (not to mention hamstring exercises). This exercise
is a variation of the SLDL that turns two barbells
into something similar to a SLDL machine. Why
would you want to do that? The
reason is this - improving your balance can help
you focus on FEELING the hamstrings working rather
than on balancing and worrying about other parts
of the exercise...
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here to keep reading...
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Hand-Over-Hand
Chin-Ups
By
Nick Nilsson
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This one is a GREAT
chin-up exercise that will blow your lats and your
biceps up like crazy! I won't go into detail about
how chin-ups are one of the best back exercises
you can do and how bodyweight exercises generally
activate more muscle fibers, making them superior
to machine exercises (and many free weight exercises)...of
course, I guess I just DID go into detail there!...
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here to keep reading...
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"3D
Abs!" - Three Unique Abdominal Exercises In The Three
Major Planes Of Movement
By
Nick Nilsson
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Six pack abs, flat
stomach, strong core...sound interesting? But what
to do you if you've tried every abdominal exercise
in the book and you need something NEW? These following
3 ab exercises, using only very simple equipment,
will hit your abs in ways they've NEVER felt before...
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Click
here to keep reading...
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Lockout
Partial Bench Press For Strengthening Connective Tissue
By Nick Nilsson
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There aren't too many
trainers I know who don't want a bigger bench
press. Let's be honest...it's an ego lift but it's
nice to see people's eyes bug out when you tell
them how much you can bench press (because you know
they always ask!). But
what do you do if you get stuck at a certain weight
with the bench press and you can't seem to budge
it upwards a single pound?...
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Click
here to keep reading...
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The
CURE For Stubborn Shoulders...The Two-Phase Barbell Shoulder
Press
By Nick Nilsson
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If you've ever had
a hard time developing your shoulders, this exercise
is going to be a lifesaver for you! Personally,
shoulders are one of my WORST bodyparts. It's tough
to keep them strong...tough to get them bigger...and
tough to really feel them working when I'm actually
doing shoulder exercises!...
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here to keep reading...
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My
VERY Favorite Leg Exercise (I
Like It Even More Than Barbell Squats For Working The Thighs
HARD!)
By Nick Nilsson
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My VERY favorite leg
exercise for really hitting the thighs HARD is not
a new exercise...it may not even seem to you to
be all that great of an exercise at first glance.
But when I tell you how to do it FOR REAL, you're
going to LOVE the results you get with it...
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Click
here to keep reading...
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