This variation of the bench press is a fantastic way to get the upper muscle fibres of your chest muscles to get involved. It is important for you to keep those shoulders pinned back and down while doing it and to ensure that your elbows stay directly under the bar as you do this exercise.
Want to really target the shoulders – this exercise is a great way to isolate those deltoids!
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? đŸ˜€
In this progression, we throw in some extra challenge by having the swiss ball under us. By holding the body in correct alignment, you will also want to squeeze your glutes to help you stay on the ball.
If you are unable to get your head against the wall, try propping a towel that is rolled up enough to enable you have your head against it.
In this progression, the wall angel is done without any support under the hips. By holding the body in correct alignment, you will want to try and get your elbows against the wall and if possible your wrists too.
If you are unable to get your head against the wall, try propping a towel that is rolled up enough to enable you have your head against it.
Pos Delt Tris stands for Posterior Deltoid and Triceps. This double movement allows us to engage some lesser used posterior deltoid and also the tricep!
The trick to getting this one right is not allowing your elbow to go to high and above your torso. Keep it in line with your back and you will engage more!
While it would be AWESOME if you could flick out a set of adamantium claws at the end of this movement, the exercise is still pretty cool considering the benefits it has! Using a good solid set of your more underused back muscles, Wolverines will definitely help with your posture!
Just remember to keep your shoulders down and pinch those shoulder blades together at the end of the movement!
This exercise is deceptively challenging! You don’t need a lot of weight at all to complete it. Even a can of food in each hand will be enough for most people! If you have a theraband, you can loop it around a post and do the motion with it also.
If your traps really start to engage with this exercise, stop the exercise as the muscles we want to use have been fatigued and other muscles are taking over.
Woodchops are a great exercise to get your core engaged – in particular the obliques!
Bench Press – One of the staples of the gym.. yet scarily enough – most people don’t know how to do it safely or effectively.
Things to note are that your connection to the ground through your feet and thus ability to engage your core will help your lift to no end. You should be able to lift your hips off the bench by pushing through your feet.
Bar positioning above the chest is very important. You want the bar to always be above the wrists, elbows and shoulders.
In this image, you can see that the forearms are vertical in from a side and front view. It is vital that you keep the weight stacked in this way to keep the lift about working the right muscles!
If the weight begins to be a struggle, by pushing into the floor with your feet, engaging your core and lifting your hips from the bench can aid in getting that last rep out!
This is a simple yet effective exercise that helps with learning and improving external rotation. The key to this exercise is not going heavy. Your external rotator muscles aren’t big so they don’t require big weights being thrown around. Light yet precise movements are key for this.
Another movement that is considered to be one of the staple exercises for weight training; the military press is a fairly simple move that can really give great results for your shoulders – provided you do it right!
Tips to getting this move right are various but all very simple!
1. Do not let the weight roll your wrists back towards your face and keep the weight stacked above the wrists and elbows. If you roll your wrists back, the weight comes closer to your nose and face and that will in turn affect your posture during the lift.
2. Always make sure your forearms are vertical. This is from both a front on view but also a side view also. If your elbows end up behind the bar, chances are that you have rolled your shoulders thus putting you your shoulder in a problematic and less efficient position for the lift.
3. Remember your core and remember your breathing!