It seems that during the last couple of years, the golden era of bodybuilding is reviving. Everyone wants to have an aesthetically pleasing physique, also known as the old-school V-tapered look.
The question is, how do you get a body like that? How do you sculpt an eye-turning, perfectly proportioned upper body with a wide back, big chest, boulder shoulders and huge arms but tiny waist ? Do you need to build mass or cut for muscle definition? Isn’t that too hard?
Read on, because this article has just the thing for you. It examines a workout routine designed to build your pecs, widen your lats and shoulders, thus giving you the V-taper look that everyone will be so envious about. There are 6 exercises in this V-taper workout and it should take you about 45 minutes to complete it.
The essential component of this V-taper workout is using compound exercises which will stimulate all the muscle groups at the same time, while giving your arms enough stimulus to grow, enabling you a complete upper body workout.
The V-Taper Body Workout Routine
As with any workout, you should first prepare by warming up for 5 to 10 minutes with jumping jacks, jumping stars, jumping squats, burpees and some light cardio for 5 minutes.
Key points:
- You need to finish every set and rep of each exercise exactly as they are prescribed before proceeding to the next exercise.
- You will rest around 30 seconds between each set and around 90 seconds between exercises.
- You will do 4 sets of 10 to 15 reps of every exercise.
- You should always go to failure on the third set.
- Strive to increase the load for each machine exercise by 5 to 10 percent every week.
And remember, always do the exercises with a proper form to avoid injury.
The V-taper Exercises
1. Bench press
– Lie on a flat bench in so that your eyes are in a straight line under the bar.
– Grab the bar with a shoulder-width grip.
– Arch the back so that the lower back is slightly off the bench. Pull the should blades behind your back together.
– Squeeze the bar hard and unrack it. It is preferable that you use a spotter, so that when the load gets extremely heavy, they can help you take the bar into the starting position.
– Inhale deeply and start lowering the bar to the sternum which is exactly at the pecs’ bottom edge and tuck the elbows at around 45 degrees to the sides.
– Once the bar reached the chest, drive with the feet hard into the floor and push it to the starting position. Exhale once you’ve finished one rep.
2. Barbell pullover with your arms bent
– Lie on a bench.
– Extend your arms above you and with an overhand grip (palms facing upwards) grab the bar with your hands at shoulder width, while keeping the elbows straight and in the same line with your arms.
– Lower the loaded bar behind the head and inhale while you’re doing it.
– Once you’ve fully extended your arms behind your head, start raising back to its starting position above your head.
3. Bench dips with triceps emphasis
– Sit on the edge of a flat bench and put your hands next to your hips with your fingers gripping the edge of the bench.
– Start the movement by lifting your a*s off the bench edge and move your feet forward until you are able to lower your buttocks down to the floor in front of the bench.
– Lower your buttocks 3 to 4 inches down and then push with your arms to go back to the starting position.
– Keep the legs straight and use them for balance only.
– The torso should always be in an upright position, with the hips below the shoulders, and kept close to the bench as much as possible throughout the entire movement.
4. Barbell shrug with a wide grip
– Grab a bar and hold it at arm’s length in front of your thighs with your palms facing inwards. Your arms should be positioned at shoulder width apart.
– Keep the arms straight and shrug the shoulders towards your ears while pulling the bar upwards.
– Afterward, lower it slowly to the starting position. This enables you to stretch the traps.
5. Wide Grip Lat pull-downs
– For this exercise, you would need a pull-down machine with a wide grip bar attached. Always ensure that the knee pad is properly adjusted so that your legs can be firmly locked in and the weight would not pull your whole body upwards, annulling the exercise effects.
– Take a hold of the bar with your palms facing forward. An important note when it comes to grips: when you use a wide grip, the hands should normally be at a distance greater than the width of your shoulders. When using a medium grip, the hands should be at shoulder width distance and when using a close grip, the distance should be narrower than shoulder width.
– Once you’ve gotten yourself into position and extended both arms in front of you with the preferred grip width, lower the torso backward at an angle of 30 degrees while slightly curving the lower back and puffing the chest out. This will be the starting position.
– While exhaling, lower the bar until it reaches the upper chest while you pull your shoulders and arms back and down. The way to do this efficiently is by squeezing your back muscles and fully contracting them once you are in the bottom position. The torso should remain fixed and you should only move the arms. Forearms too should be stationary and do nothing except holding the bar tightly, which means you shouldn’t try to pull the bar down by using the forearms.
– As soon as you’ve squeezed the shoulder blades together, start slowly raising the bar back to its starting position with the arms extended fully and the lats fully stretched as well. Keep in mind to start inhaling whilst raising the bar.
Do 10 to 15 reps.
6. Side dumbbell raise
– Stand with your feet at shoulder width apart and take a dumbbell in each hand. The arms should be slightly bent at the elbows and your hands facing your body. This is the starting position.
– Raise your upper arms to the sides until your elbows are at shoulder height. At the top of the movement your elbows should be a bit higher than your wrists.
– Get back to the starting position and do additional 9 to 14 reps for a total of 10-15 reps.
Give the V-Taper workout program a try for at least 12 weeks, keeping increasing the load in small increments and we guarantee you’ll see awesome results.
