Somewhere on the ocean floor lays a treasure chest full of $50,000 worth in pirate gold and a key to a all-new Volvo XC90. And enthusiasts around the world are finding ways to search for the sunken treasure…

The Volvo Car Corporation is calling all pirates, scallywags and treasure fanatics to join The Hunt – a competition in connection with the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, which opens in theatres on May 25.

The Hunt, which has started on the 4th of this month, is the second in Volvo’s partnership with Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise. This will also be the first time the competition has been open to Canadians. Last year’s program was limited to residents of the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Spain and Austria. Now, the competition includes Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan and Thailand.

Where in the world did the Swedish automaker hide its treasure? Well, that is for participants to find out… The mystery thrills everyone… And it puffs out fumes of eagerness like the Volvo muffler. And the increasing breathtaking sensation makes the competition more intense. Tens of thousands of online treasure hunters across the globe vie to find a chest. To inspire, entertain, or even distract all would-be pirates on their quest for the treasure, Volvo offers up some other great watery mysteries from over the ages.

“Okay, okay. Maybe it is a stretch to call The Hunt one of the greatest mysteries of the deep, but it certainly has got a lot of people flummoxed,” said Linda Gangeri, the national advertising manager for Volvo Cars of North America. “We thought some of our more prodigious participants might enjoy pitting their wit and skill against some age-old mysteries… but even if they solve them, the only way to get your hands on Volvo’s treasure is by joining our Hunt!”

Just days after Volvo launched its latest treasure hunt, the company has revealed some spots where it did not sink the treasure. “Three-quarters of the earth’s surface is under water, so finding a sunken treasure chest is not going to be easy,” said Volvo’s Linda Gangeri. “We want our hunt to be challenging, but we don’t want participants to become discouraged, so we thought we’d help narrow the playing field by revealing places where ‘X’ doesn’t mark the spot.”

Some of the more rational sounding places where the treasures are not found include the Dead Sea, the Red Sea, the Caspian Sea, and Sea World. Even though the hunt started on 4 May, there is still time to join. Volvo is calling more participants aged 18 years and older to visit a Volvo retailer to pick up a special pirate chart then register at www.volvocars.com/thehunt any time between May 4 and May 29. The first person from each of the participating markets to finish the online hunt will compete against one another in one final online challenge June 2. To participate in the global head to head, players will be required to present an original pirate chart upon conclusion of The Hunt. Winners will only be eligible if they can produce the pirate chart.

Once registered, participants set sail on a virtual high seas adventure and receive clues as they solve a series of challenging and fun online puzzles. Enthusiasts can join The Hunt and can catch up with other participants if they correctly answer the puzzles posted online. As the contest progresses, the puzzles will become more and more hard to solve.

The first of those 22 individuals to solve the final puzzle will be named the winner and will receive a trip to the burial location to retrieve the chest filled with $50,000 in pirate gold and a key to a brand new Volvo XC90.

“Last summer, we held a treasure hunt to find a buried Volvo XC90 V8 to tie in with Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and were blown away by the success – more than 100,000 participants from around the world joined in,” said Linda Gangeri, national advertising manager for Volvo Cars of North America. “This year, with more countries, more booty and all the early interest, we’re really excited to set sail.’ So, come join The Hunt!”

One of the most popular muscle groups to focus upon is the chest, with many bodybuilders seeking significant muscle mass in the pecs through performing many sets of heavy bench pressing. Despite most weight lifting routines centering upon the bench press as the main upper body muscle building exercise, there are numerous bodybuilders who produce disappointing results in the chest region, and are searching for an alternative to the bench press for added muscle gain.

Many bodybuilders may still be unaware as to the true reasons why the chest in many cases does not develop as quickly as other smaller muscle groups, and replacing the bench press is not a viable solution, since this particular exercise is very effective in packing on additional chest muscle, that is, assuming that the shoulders and triceps do not fail prior to the pecs, which occurs far too often. This is the factor that many neglect when analyzing how to produce an effective chest building routine, as there are many muscle groups that participate in compound exercises such as the bench press, and if they are weaker than the target muscle that a bodybuilder is attempting to train (such as the shoulders or triceps experiencing fatigue prior to the chest during bench press), the supporting muscles (shoulders or triceps in this example) will fail first, and this will cause disappointing results in the primary muscle group (chest).

How this applies to the chest muscles in particular is that the triceps and shoulders are frequently insufficiently powerful to allow the pecs to fail first during the bench press exercise, which leads to lackluster muscle gain in the chest. Therefore, to rectify this scenario, a bodybuilder must institute pre-exhaustion, a technique that targets the chest in a more direct way, which fatigues the pectorals sufficiently to allow them a far greater chance for failure prior to the shoulders and triceps during the bench press, and this will result in far faster and more elaborate chest muscle growth.

The most effective pre-exhaustion exercise for the chest is pec deck, where both hands or elbows are brought together from an outstretched position either holding handles or placing the forearm behind padding, and this greatly overloads the pecs, causing them significant fatigue. When performing such an exercise prior to bench pressing, the shoulders and triceps will in most cases outlast the pecs due to proper performance of this pre-exhaustion exercise (pec deck), and this allows the chest to receive the majority of stimulation during all bench press movements.

Some choose to use dumbbells instead of the pec deck, performing a weight training movement known as dumbbell flies, but doing so is not as effective as using pec deck since the dumbbell fly exercise allows less weight to be used, in addition to requiring the bodybuilder to balance the two dumbbells above his or her chest as if performing the bench press, which introduces unnecessary shoulder fatigue (and the goal is to target the pecs and avoid as much shoulder or triceps overload as possible). The pec deck targets the chest in a very direct fashion, which is the goal of any pre-exhaustion technique, and thus the pec deck should be performed immediately prior to the bench press for any bodybuilder who experiences disappointing chest muscle growth.

For bodybuilders who cannot access a pec deck machine, the cable crossover is a somewhat less effective, but acceptable alternative, yet the chances are that those who are unable to use a pec deck also do not own a cable crossover unit, therefore, in such cases, dumbbell flies are acceptable for chest muscle pre-exhaustion prior to bench pressing. Keep in mind that the weight used during bench press will decline as compared with what you were able to use prior to introducing the pec deck as a pre-exhaustion technique, as your pecs will have experienced fatigue from pec deck prior to performing the bench press exercise, but this should not be of concern to you, as the total amount of overload will increase due to a combination of the extra pec deck exercise, and the greater focus upon chest fatigue during bench press that occurs as a result of pre-exhausting the pecs. The goal is to use the greatest amount of weight while targeting the intended muscle group, and for many, when performing bench press as the first exercise of a workout, without pre-exhaustion, the pecs never receive sufficient stimulation to begin achieving their impressive muscle growth potential.