The preacher curl is an exercise that gained popularity from Mr Olympia competitor Larry Scott and has often been in the program for many a body builder since then. It is a great exercise to help improve strength and size of the bicep. The important point of this exercise is that you must control the descent of the weight otherwise you run the risk of causing injury. Time under tension is key!
To mix up the stimulus of this exercise, you can perform this exercise using a low pulley instead of a dumbbell. In this case you will need to position the bench in front of a cable machine or pulley based piece of equipment.
This is a great exercise to engage your lat and rhomboid muscles to help develop stability and strength in your back. No cables handy? No problem – you can always improvise and use a power band lassoed around a post or solid, unmovable structure. It’s important to remember that this exercise is about retracting your shoulder – not about getting your elbow as far behind you as you can.
This exercise is a great alternative to a lying hamstring curl machine. Most gyms will have a cable machine and if not, there should be somewhere you can anchor a theraband/powerband to replicate the movement!
This exercise is a great alternative to a lying hamstring curl machine. Most gyms will have a cable machine and if not, there should be somewhere you can anchor a theraband/powerband to replicate the movement!
By now many of you have seen in the news in the last few days the story regarding the personal trainer who apparently trained a first time client into the hospital. The news story obviously piqued my interest what with the talk of kidney damage so of course I have something to say on the…
Want to really target the shoulders – this exercise is a great way to isolate those deltoids!
The Shoulder Extension Stretch is to help stretch out your shoulder muscles and also your chest muscles.
This exercise is to help set your shoulder blade and give a bit of a balancing challenge. The stabiliser muscles of the shoulder have to kick in to keep your shoulder blade and humerus bone in place. A great warm up protocol for when working with shoulders!
As stability and strength improves add a DB to one hand.
This is an often underused exercise often because people don’t do them properly. There is some great benefit in leg extensions provided that you lose your ego and recognise that heavier is most likely to be counter productive to your goals.
This exercise is regarding full leg extensions.
This is a great exercise to help with your overall core strength. This even helps with how to do a handstand!
The Dumbbell Seated Calf Raise is a clever alternative for those who do not have a machine based seated calf raise machine. In some ways this set up is actually better than a machine, mainly due to the knees being more free and the sensation of trying to lift your heels up and forward is slightly more effective!
The couch stretch is great for opening the hips by stretching out the quads and hip flexors. The main thing to remember with this one is that quite often people will be tight through these muscle structures so it may not take much to get that stretch happening. Each time you do it, try and increase the angle and positioning! This stretch is great for doing against the couch (hence the name) and also against a flat bench in the gym. Pop a rolled towel or pillow under that knee for comfort!
This is a great exercise for engaging your oblique muscles. Evolutions of this exercise can involve dropping and elevating your hips from that standard straight bodied position.
Often it can be a case that lower back pain is compounded by certain structures getting tight which makes it difficult to allow the lower back to be in the correct anatomical position. Your Quadratus Lumborum (QL) and Latissimus Dorsi muscles are two such muscles that can be inhibiting your lower back to be neutral! You QL attachment points are the Iliac crest of your hip and the twelfth rib and the tranverse processes of your lumbar vertebrae L1-L4. This stretch is great for stretching these structures!
Body weight exercises are the best way for PTs to illustrate that you can indeed to exercise nearly ANYWHERE at ANYTIME. I say nearly because a funeral or during a fire drill are 2 such examples of times and places that they are not appropriate. Where was I? Oh yes – Bicycles. Great core exercise that really allows you get those pesky obliques!
Dumbbell Press is a great exercise to progress to from doing your standard barbell bench press. It forces your muscles to work harder to stabilise the movement and means you get more engagement in your shoulder joints.
Lateral raises are easy in that you don’t need much weight but challenging because they are hard work! A lot of people go too heavy with these and sacrifice form for feeding their ego. Let’s not be one of those people eh? 😀