Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Exercise of the Week


For the love of Pete…. 

Please do a chest press correctly!

You might be asking yourself why is she bringing this up? I actually saw a gentleman (idiot) bouncing his elbows off the floor as he was raising the weights up and over his chest.  Please don’t do this!!!  

Exercise of the week

Chest Press on a Stability Ball

 

·        Hold your dumbbells (10’s, 12’s, 15’s) as you roll into bridge position

 

·         Bridge Position=

1.) Head, Neck, & Shoulders resting on top of ball (like your laying on a pillow)

2.) Glutes squeezed together and rise up like your body is in a “bridge” like position

 

·        Hold weights with palms facing out, knuckles parallel with forearm

 

·       Elbows parallel with the floor and level with your shoulder, push weights up at chest level

 

·      IMPORTANT NOTE=don’t let arms fall below shoulder, you don’t want arms to fall and touch bench or ball

 

Targets= Chest, Shoulder, Glutes, Hamstrings & Core muscles

 

Falling below the bench/ball can tear the anterior deltoid and surrounding ligaments


Here is a nice looking brotha to show you good form......



Here is how your arms should look when in the parallel position......


To amp this up.....place your feet together and stay in the bridge position!  Your back muscles will start cooking.  Make sure you knees don't go beyond the toes, see how her knees are are above her ankles?

...I'm glad I got that off my chest. 

10 comments:

Unknown said...

That is not one of the exercises that I do, but if I start, I'll be sure to refer to this post (or give you a holler!) about form.

The Trainer that I work with also emphasizes good form. I'm guilty of holding my shoulders too high most of the time. He's always reminding me to relax and drop my shoulders.

Shannon said...

Lisa, relax and drop the shoulders and rest comfortably back on the bench/ball. The problem I see mostly is the dropping of the elbows which results in a pulling, straining on the anterior shoulders. If people have any shoulder pain, this may be a result. This is a great exercise for chest/shoulders just make sure the elbows don't fall below the shoulder level or parallel to the floor. :)

Viv said...

EEKK! are you trying to tell me to get back into ST. It is in every blog I go to including on my workout plan from the coach. I am such a wuss lately :-(

Gotta Run..... said...

I am not perfect BUT I often see so many at the gym lifting wrong. Drives me crazy!

Marcy said...

I would probably die if I attempted this LMAO!

tfh said...

I needed this! I think I'm actually making a different form error based upon your description and photos. I've always rested more of my back on the ball during this exercise, so that my head is almost off the ball and my legs are less engaged. I'm going to remember "Head Neck Shoulders" next time!

teacherwoman said...

Good to know! Thanks for the pointer!

Chris said...

Nice new format! I'm liking it..

I'm feeling the need to buy one of these and try out your recipe's

Anonymous said...

Sigh.....I'm sorry that this will probably be my last comment on this blog (although I'm sure the other commenters are really happy). Once again, I saw the mention of a stability ball and got excited, only to be dissappointed that the alleged Queen of the Stability Ball wasn't pictured in her own blog. If I were to post a comment that wasn't expressing my dissapointment, it would be to indicate that I also do chest flys on the stability ball. They can be done one armed with one dumbell, promoting balance, or with both arms using a pully machine for variety. The positioning on the ball is as mentioned by the Q of the SB on her blog, although when doing them one armed it helps to have a wide base with your feet. I do a lot of my strength training using a stability ball. Unfortunately, I can't balance while kneeling on one. But, if I could, I would gladly post the picture of it on this otherwise excellent blog.

Shannon said...

sigh.....next exercise I'll get the hubby to take a picture of me.....sigh.......I have to give what my public is asking for......