Last week I was hanging out with Elliott Hulse from http://www.LeanHybridMuscle.net
Elliott is a professional strongman competitor and one hell of a strength and conditioning coach. He works with a lot of amateur and professional athletes who are looking for that extra edge, as well as average guys who just want to get in their best shape physical shape.
Now as a strength and conditioning coach Elliott focuses more on strength and athletic performance, not so much on muscle specialization workouts. Most of his training is based around working the body as a whole unit with lots of full body workouts.
Total body training is very effective. But when you have a stubborn lagging muscle group you need to do more than just “total body workouts” to target that specific muscle group and bring it up to par with the rest of your body.
Elliott asked me to help out one of his coaching students with some specialization tips for building wide muscular lats and that’s exactly what I cover in the video below…
Now I have a question for YOU…
What are some of your stubborn body parts that you would like help with developing?
You see to help Elliott out with his new Lean Hybrid Muscle Training System I’m going to put together a special “Muscle Specialization Guide” that will show you how to target your stubborn muscle groups and perform specific exercises to help bring them up to par with your stronger muscle groups.
So in the comments section below please let me know exactly what are your most stubborn muscle groups that you would like to get specialized workout programs for?
I’m sure everyone reading this has at least 1 body part that they’d like to improve, so I’m hoping for at least 100 comments to this blog post.
Than based on the feedback I get here I’m going to pick the most popular ones and create a complete “Muscle Specialization Training Guide” for those specific body parts.
So take a minute right now and post your comments below…
392 Comments
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Brad
definitely my lats. At least the part that has to do with pull ups because I suck so badly at pull ups.
I’m 142 lbs with 7% body fat, I bench 190, squat 230, yet for some reason I can only do about 8 pull ups. I train my lats every time I work out, but they just won’t really get any stronger. My least stubborn muscles are definitely my pecs, shoulders, and forearms because they are really big for my size…but my lats just won’t grow for some reason. Help please…because I do wrestling and your lats are probably the second most important muscle for it (behind forearms because you need grip more than anything).
Dan
lower traps, my upper traps are very strong so when i do back exercises that should work lower traps, my upper trap do all the work and my lower trap never get worked.
Shaneh
Arms… but mainly the biceps need some size. My back and chest look well sized but as soon as you take a glimpse of my arms you look at me in disbelief (this dude ain’t strong [although I am])
Shoulders need to be bigger, only work done on them are shoulder presses and indirect bench work…
Traps are lacking.
Arms, shoulders, traps
Mike
my shoulders tend to be stubborn, as well as my forearms and calfs
SAm
17.2 inches arm Lee, no kidding, my chest is huge and so are my legs,
but damn my shoulders just wont grow, I tried your shoulder workout but it didnt work,
I tried high and low reps, drop set, superset, nothing man… I even tried negative reps lol
the next 8 weeks Ill do forced reps, I dont know how thats possible but Ill figure it out,
and no I dont overtrain
Dave
CALVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Dave
and shoulders…………….
Ken
Hey Lee…Ken here…My pitfall is my pecs keeping them pumped and biceps are good but remaining pumped up and hard is what I like.
My abs are gonna get there soon as Im getting equipment for leg lifts and abs so this is a pet peve of mine right now is getting those abs to show,
My chest is around 48″-50″ isn’t to bad is getting bigger which I know Im on the right track and my pecks have increased a good bit.For 6’4″ in height I think Im getting there as I weigh out at 260lbs so Lee give me some feed back buddy…Ken
Phil Raoult
DELTS! DELTS! and DELTS!
Bruce
Hi Lee,
As for me and quite a couple of my friends, our weakness is shoulders. Shoulder is my most stubborn body part. Building a big bold defined shoulder really can make someone look much bigger.
I feel that without a big bold shoulder you will look crappy in clothing or even in sleveless/singlet in the gym. Even though your chest/back is lacking, you can always cover them up when you wear t-shirt/sleveless etc. But I feel without a big bold shoulder you will not be regarded as ‘big’!
Shoulder has always been my most stubborn bodypart even though I put a lot of emphasize on them. Some people say shoulders must go HEAVY, some say go light and feel them work. I am utterly confused which to follow even though I have tried both but my shoulder still sucks comparatively to my other bodyparts.
Besides that, I personally feel is hard to improve on shoulder size compared with biceps/triceps (which could easily be measured). Some blessed people do have big shoulders and I feel that instantly make them look bigger already even though some of their other part sucks (but you can hide plenty in clothings – chest/back/abs/legs).
I would appreciate it most if someone would finally come out with a real shoulder specialization instead of all the specialization focusing on arms and chest. Btw, my front delt is the weakest part and my rear delt is more defined and maybe bigger than my front delt. Weird but true!
And to others that complained about Chest and biceps, Lee already have Blast your Bench program for chest and Blast your Biceps for biceps (arms actually).
Not to mention I think most people likes to focus on chest and biceps (which are the show muscles) and so they think that those parts are lacking even though they might not be lacking compared to the rest of their body. Their chest and biceps could be proportionate with their overall size but because they want them to be bigger so badly they think they are lacking when they are not.
However, this are just my opinion and I’m not trying to criticized anyone or offend anyone. I know there are guys out there however who have good shoulder development but bad chest development. Nevertheless for me I think that a great shoulder development is one of the main key of looking BIG!
Lee, help us out on the DELTOID problem man 🙂 I can see that you have good deltoids development. You have round and VEINY deltoids and so I am sure you must have some clue on how to get bigger deltoids 🙂
Koert WInkel
Very Specific, my pec major!
Tony
upper and inner chest along with traps
Bob Carter
I’d have to say my Shoulders are the weaker body part overall. They’re not bad in terms of side lateral shape, but they lack that overall huge cannon ball look… like the Great Larry Scott! Thanks…. Bob Carter
Paul
Shoulders, particularly the middle delts. I cannot get the rounded full look when viewing from front on
josh
Hey Lee, I find that my forearms are my most stubborn part along with my lower biceps and calves
fellow gladiator
Glutes,hams,Quads,calves, Whole dam legs. I get stronger ,my weight goes up but no size…Y is it my reps or intake ?????? Please help with chicken leg syndome
Almino
I would say my Back is the stubborn part for me… and the abs too because I have never seen my 6 pack.
Alamin
Need help with my back ….
Christian
I need to get my shoulders bigger though they have increased in size since i have begun focusing on them.
Nate
Shoulders and FOREARMS!!! Yikes
Cody
I like all od your routines that you have put together so far. But, shoulders are my lacking part, and i dont think you created anything epic yet for them like u have for bench. (SHOULDERS)thanks
Justin
Calves, quads and hamtrings developing nicely, the damn calves just dont respond too well.
Bruce Storrs
Number one would be calves. Next up would be chest. I need to lose more bodyfat to better define the chest area.
Fil Hein
Rear Delts need improvement
thomas mcneil
abdominal muscles
Jeff
Traps and abs for sure
Jim
Evan,
Nate,
I totally agree! Forearms just never seem to catch up, as there’s really not that many exercizes to train these! I have also heard somewhere though that they respond to a different number of reps than other muscle types due to the type of twitch their muscle fibres have, but I don’t know the full story! I know your arms look amazing Lee, so any help you could shed would be greatly appreciated! Many thanks in advance,
Jim.
Brandon
Biceps would be #1, Triceps #2
Joe McKeown
My Calves are the most stubborn muscle group on my body. They grow stronger but the size is just not there. I have changed up my routine back and forth lower reps higher weight. higher reps lower weight, combination of both. I even tried working my calves every other day to see if that would be the answer but nothing. This has been over a period of 15 years. I feel like I have tried everything under the sun but nothing seems to work.
shawn
biceps, just cant seem to gain a lot of size on em. have got more cuts but not much of a gain in size
Brian Thompson
My biceps and forearms are by far the most stubborn.
Travis
my calves are the most stubborn muscle group. Thanks again leave for the 21 day mass just got done with my first cycle and on to cycle 2 🙂 went from 150 to 165 in 2 weeks with some bigger muscles. Can’t wait to see what the results are for cycle 2 and looking forward to e-mailing you and vince my before picture and after.
~Travis
Jaws2
Hey Lee, my biceps are #1, and chest #2, I’m doing BYB Phase 1 right now ( Thanks to winning the contest!) and have done BYBench last year with good results. The 20 rep squats and body excercise in Phase 1 is more than I thought it would be and I’m surprised at the progress I’ve made on the squat and push-ups. I’m REALLY looking forward to beginning Phase 2 of BTB in a couple of weeks and beyond. I’ll keep everyone advised as to my progress.
BTW, should I take a week off between Phase 1 & 2 on BYB?
Thanks Lee for all you do and have done for myself and I’m sure a lot of people out there.
Ken
Of course it’s Calfes, you either blessed with them or they are hard gainer.
Denise
I have never had trouble working out my upper body. I have well-defined traps, better defined than alot of my guy friends and I enjoy working on my rhomboids, as well as all my upper body muscles. The only upper muscle I would say is a little weak is my triceps, but I know balancing opposing muscles is important so I try not to let my biceps get overly strong in comparison to my triceps.
The area that I have always struggled with is my lower body. I have been learning what exercises work for my adductors especially. Adductors are often neglected muscles. In the last year I have really been working on my lower body and trying new workouts and mixing it up so I don’t get bored. That has been one of my problems with working on my lower body.
Liam M
TRAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lawrence
Traps and Lats.
josh
My calves and hamstrings are my problem areas
david
Biceps… I have a really nice chest but my arms are not that big, decent size but not as big as I want them to be. And also any tips for back fat? Love handles? I do lots of cardiovascular but they won’t go away. I also drink lots of water and Ive been doing a diet for a long time but it seems they won’t disappear any suggestions??
rocky
Shoulders and forearms
john
My biceps, triceps, and forearms are my stubborn body parts.
Qasid
My arms and my chest
Jey
Forearms, Abs !
Kevin
It would definitely by far would be my biceps.
Michael Butts
I have to say beyond question calves and forearms, not much worse than big thighs and upper arms and little bitty calves and forearms
Steve
Lee,
I would love to build out my anterior deltoid heads better to have more rounded shoulders.
Ranasingha
I think it is very difficult to stimulate both side of the chest at the same potency due to the size difference from the genetics.
thanks.
Shane Otto
I’d have to say my delts , I work and work them but they never seem to grow any bigger, so my arm looks funny lol
Matt Beukelman
My chest is my lagging. i have really working on it since starting to work out and i have made real progress but its still behind. couldnt even get plates up when i started. i was a real string bean a year ago haha. but i put up 225 for the first time ever a while back so big progress in my eyes but im still behind in the chest
Ali
Hey coach, it’s definitely gonna be my BICEPS:(
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