Today, I thought I would touch on some posing advice with probably the most underrated, yet important poses of them all…”Face Front”.

It took me years to try and master this pose which is often referred to “standing relaxed”.

And standing relaxed couldn’t be any further from the truth!!

The judges are literally assessing you in this pose more than any other and will be even judging you in this position when you are stood back in the lineup whilst they judge those that have been called forward for closer inspection.

It is very much an individual pose to create according to your own physique, but there are some general guidelines I thought I would discuss.

1. When walking onto the stage always keep your head up, make eye contact with the audience, smile, keep your chest up and hold your waist tight.

2. Once at your designated stage spot now start from the ground up. Feet sound be placed at 45 degrees (“duck feet”) with heels about 10-15cm apart so that the top of your adductors are just touching.

3. Now push the weight to the outside edges of your feet whilst simultaneously bending your knees just slightly. Try to visualise the ‘splitting of your quads’ with that outer sweep flaring out and around the vastus intermedius.

4. Next flex down on your abdominal wall whilst shrugging your shoulders up, out to the sides and down onto your flared lats. Tuck your thumbs into your fingers, keep the back of your hands in a straight line with your forearms (ie; NO LIMP WRISTS!!!) and punch your fists down towards the ground, NOT towards the audience. You are not riding a motorbike folks!! This in turn will enhance your V-shape, whereas the latter will make you look narrow and straight up & down.

5. At this stage the focus on your breath is critical. Try to imagine air being pumped into your rib box whilst simultaneously being sucked out of your stomach. The best way I have found to achieve this to slowly breath in through your nose and fairly promptly out through your mouth. Many nervous breaths in and out of your only the mouth will result in your rib box collapsing and hence a smaller looking upper torso and bigger stomach/waist. Also, this process of deliberate breaths in through your nose and out of the mouth is akin to how meditation works, so if done properly it can help ease your nerves and/or anxiety.

6. Whether to flex the lower pecs is now an individual dilemma. I have found that keeping the pecs relaxed gave them a fuller & rounder appearance. Guys with very overdeveloped lower pecs may wish to flex them so as to create a harder more defined & balanced look when compared to their upper chest.

7. Once in position it is now important to occasionally refresh or reboot your upper torso. To do this simply repeat my earlier key thoughts of shrugging the shoulders up around and down onto your flared lats whilst simultaneously concentrating on your breath in through the nose and out of your mouth. Remember to keep flexing down on your abdominal wall. This does take some time to master, but with practice you’ll get the idea. And don’t forget, no limp wrists, whilst punching your fists down towards the ground!!

8. Don’t forget about your lower body key thoughts either (ie; points 2 & 3).

9. I will occasionally do a ‘sneaky’ palms together most muscular so as to attract the judges attention and maintain my pump in the pecs and delts. I will quickly then return back to ‘face front’.

10. The whole time you are in this position remember to smile, never look down and try to make as much eye contact with the audience and judges as you can. If these people see that you are relaxed, confident and enjoying yourself then mark my words, they will be drawn to looking at YOU like the proverbial moth to a flame!!!

In closing, I will reiterate that this pose needs customising to suit your physique. But I think you will find that some of these tips should assist you in creating your own awesome version of “Face Front”!!

PS: Don’t forget my Posing ebook is now for sale for only $20. Send me an email or message via the contact link on my website to arrange payment and download.

“Ways to enhance your hormones, naturally!!”

Ok people, this time around I would like to focus, on not a training tip per se, but something that will indirectly improve both your ability and desire to workout.

Optimum hormone production is paramount at any age, but even more important when ‘father time’ starts to kick you in the derrière!

“CW’s Version of HIT explained…”

Just recently cranked out an awesome chest workout at the new Gold’s Gym Rockingham where, in true Gold’s fashion, they have an apparatus for every conceivable angle!!

1. Flat dumbbell bench presses 3 sets 15/12/8 reps
2. Rocking decline machine presses 3 sets 15/12/8 reps
3. CW’s hybrid incline fly-presses 2 sets 12/9 reps (with drop set*)
4. Cross bench dumbbell pullovers 2 sets 12/9 reps
5. Seated pec deck 2 sets 15/12 reps

Total duration: 40 minutes!

The basic premise with this style of training (High Intensity Training) is to put everything you have into the last set on each exercise.

And if you can’t get to positive failure on that set I then like to do an immediate drop set* for about 12-15 reps with approximately half the weight.

Importantly, the one or two lead up sets of 15 and/or 12 reps are performed NOT to failure and are simply getting you prepared for the final all out set.

This way you don’t burn yourself out with all those extraneous sets and allow yourself to be stronger for that last set.

To optimise that final set you can use other principles to take it past positive failure such as forced reps (with a reliable training partner) with deliberate negatives, cheat reps, partial reps, descending sets, etc.

BUT, as always, be mindful of form when going beyond failure.

This type of training brings quite rapid results, increases in strength, allows for recovery and will give you a renewed enthusiasm for training at the gym.

After about 8-10 weeks it is then a good idea to back off the weights slightly for a couple of weeks with perhaps a bit more volume and not going to failure.

The video below is also worth a look, as the principle behind HIT training is well covered by legendary 6 time Mr Olympia, Dorian Yates…

“DELT PRESSER OR PEC PRESSER!!??”

I have been a chronic deltoid presser for all the years I have trained and have worked hard these past few years to try and press with my pecs and consequently take the load off my battered ACL joints.

While I was in Melbourne I went to see Myotherapist, Michael Bordignon, who operates from his clinic next to Doherty’s headquarters in Brunswick.

He showed me how to pinch my shoulder blades together and keep them there throughout the entire movement by practicing against a vertical wall. And to do this in between my sets of dumbbell presses.

The key thought here is to literally keep your shoulders ‘down and back’ during both the eccentric and concentric part of the pressing motion. Minimizing the front deltoids action is what you are trying to achieve all whilst increasing the involvement of the pectoral muscles.

I find that by putting a 10cm high step under the bottom end of the bench, thus creating a slight decline, really helps you use gravity to ‘calm down’ those eager deltoids.

The other exercise I like to do after the aforementioned dumbbell presses is my hybrid incline dumbbell fly/ press.

The key to this great upper pec mass builder is to tuck your chin into your chest, again keep your shoulders ‘down and back’ and then try to bring your upper pecs (near your collarbone) into your chin at the top of the movement so as to create a peak contraction right where you need it.

Just be sure to set the incline bench at only 30 degrees or so.

Check out my vid from my YouTube channel “Craig Winter” and you’ll get the idea.

I then like to finish my chest workout with 2 sets of cross-bench dumbbell pullovers and 2 sets of cable crossovers from high to low.

A great pump is guaranteed!!

Many of people have asked me…

“Craig, what do you do in terms of training your abs?”

To their confusion and disbelief, I say…

“Nothing!!”

Well, it’s not really nothing.

When you consider all the heavy lifting I do during my training week with exercises like deadlifts, squats, bent rows, dumbbell rows, barbell curls, tricep push-downs, pullovers, etc, my abdominal wall is copping an absolute beating as it contracts isometrically against my weight training belt so as to support my core during these taxing compound movements.

The abdominal wall is like any other body part, it needs plenty of rest and recovery for subsequent growth and development to occur.

My advice to you is simple, if you feel this muscle group is not getting enough stimulus from your regular workouts then you could perhaps train them once per week with some ab crunches, cable pull-downs whilst kneeling on the floor and /or hanging leg raises. Two to three sets of each of these exercises with repetitions in the 15-20 range is all you need.

The abdominal wall is VERY easily over-trained, and at the end of the day, most people’s problems with a lack of visible abs are largely due to too much body fat, which in turn can be rectified by tidying up one’s eating habits combined with perhaps introducing some cardiovascular exercise from brisk walking or cycling.

So when it comes to developing world class abs, my response always involves the KISS Theory…

“Keep it simple stupid!!!”

PS: And no folks, fat burners like Hydroxycut are not the ‘magic bullet’ for bringing out your abs!!!

.John Winter was born in Yorkshire, England in 1935 and by the age of 16 started lifting weights to boost his size and strength as well as improve his appearance. He progressed rapidly and began entering physique competitions. He always thought that the legendary Reg Park looked awesome and possessed a physique to aspire to. John did well, winning several regional titles and a 2nd placing in Mr North-East Britain in 1958. He combined heavy weight training with a gruelling job as a bricklayer. He then got married, emigrated to Western Australia , had 3 children and had to ease himself away from the gym. He did, however, keep himself in excellent shape and retained much of his hard earned muscle for many years. To this day, at 81 years of age, he still has the appearance of a much younger man.

John’s first son Craig always ogled at the size of his father’s chest and biceps and was amazed how he could wiggle his huge pecs and pretend to puff up his baseball-like biceps by blowing into his thumb. His calves were always a sight to behold resembling two massive cuttlefish skeletons shoved under the skin of the back of his lower legs. Craig would spend hours looking at his father’s old bodybuilding photographs and muscle magazines. Besides his father, his obvious idols as a young boy were bodybuilding greats like Frank Zane, Chris Dickerson, Tony Pearson and of course Arnold Schwartzenegger. Craig began his obsession with the iron game at 18 years of age with his father John giving him his first programme. Within the first year of training he began to notice changes particularly in terms of added shoulder width, a wider back and bigger arms. His friends also noticed these gains and started training themselves which created a great atmosphere in the local gym. The environment was both competitive and fun and this spurred Craig on even more. Gains continued to happen with hard training combined with constant improvements to his nutrition. Leg training was always the hardest but eventually proved to be one of his strongest bodyparts.

Craig continued to train over the following years, enjoying both the stress relief of working out as well as the gradual improvements to his physique. The gym proved to be a salvation for Craig, an excellent diversion from his demanding daytime profession as a high school mathematics teacher. He always wanted to compete in a bodybuilding contest and follow in his father’s footsteps. The only stumbling block for Craig was the fact that at the time the only contests on offer were not drug tested and he did not want to dabble in the use of anabolic steroids.

As luck would have it, in 1994 Perth held its first natural physique competition with both urine and polygraph tests used to create a level playing field. So at 29 years of age Craig entered this contest and tied 1st place in a quality novice men’s line-up. Craig enjoyed the experience immensely and was bitten by the competitive bug. He then continued competing all the way through his thirties with several wins and top three placings at state and national level.

They say 40 years of age is the old 30. Well this proved to be the case for Craig. The year he turned 40 ended up yielding his best condition. He won both the state and national masters titles in the INBA and ANB federations as well as the overall Mr Western Australia . He then followed on from this with 3 more state titles, 2 more national titles and a swag of top 3 placings in contests that were not drug tested.

So now in 2016, at 51 years young, Craig is still very determined to try and beat last year’s model and achieve his career best condition. But until ‘father time’ catches up with him he will still continue to do battle with the iron on a daily basis. The benefits are far reaching even if you remove the physique contests from the equation. The sense of well-being, boosted meatabolism, lower bodyfat, anti-aging, increased bone density, joint stability and support, stress relief via endorphin and adrenalin release and finally the old adage “look good, feel good, am good”.

Craig has always firmly believed that the pay-off for just 1 hour a day in the gym is certainly worth the effort.

I am currently carrying a stubborn knee niggle and training around it with some ‘knee friendly’ leg exercises.
Here is my current leg workout…

1. Stiff-legged deadlifts
   2. Cybex Lying Leg curls
   3. Wide stance Sumo-squats to parallel
   4. Mid-range leg extensions (no lockout) with a unilateral drop set
   5. Technogym calf presses
   6. Seated calf raises

Doing hamstrings first is a terrific warm up for the knee joints.
Even when squatting I make sure there is no lock out so as to keep the load on the quadriceps muscles and away from the joints.

I also focus on deliberate 3-4 second negatives.

Definitely worth a try if your knees are troubling you at the moment!

CW’s Training Tip #3!…

“Got Forearms??”

I remember when I first started training with weights, many moons ago, I was frequently getting intensely annoying forearm niggles and injuries.

Of course, back in the early 1980’s, no one was training forearms directly and were only interested in training (and overtraining) their biceps.

About a decade later I decided to train them directly with three basic exercises, the reverse barbell curl or dumbbell hammer curl and seated wrists curls.

Not only did my forearms quickly grow in size and become notably stronger, but my upper arms (via the brachialis) looked more impressive too. The most significant improvement, however, was that with the improved development the injuries started to go away.

I usually work my forearms straight after my biceps.

2-3 sets of Barbell Reverse Curls (or Dumbbell Hammer Curls) to hit the brachioradialis followed by 2 sets of seated wrist curls (palms facing up to hit the forearm flexors) is all you need.

Worth a shot…you will be pleased with the results!!