Archive for the ‘Chest Exercise’ Category

Essential Tips for the Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Incline bench press stresses your upper chest portion. For most people, the upper chest is smaller and less muscular than the mid-torso. The outer edge of the upper chest which includes the chest and the shoulder connection is usually an uncooperative part. The solution is an exercise using the dumbbell which exerts enormous focus on the area.
The incline bench press is one of the best exercise actions that you can do for developing chests. Nevertheless, there are some important tips that apply to incline bench press exercise, which you must follow religiously to achieve the most out of the exercises.

Here is a couple of necessary knowledge for the incline bench press.

Smith Machine Incline Bench Press

Exercise Guidance: This workout is similar to a regular medium grip barbell incline bench press. The only dissimilarity being that the Smith machine acts as a spotter for you. Position a free standing incline bench under your Smith Machine. Lay flat on your back and hold a barbell above you. The grip should be shoulder width apart. Raise the barbell off of the rack and gradually lower it to almost 3 inches above your clavicle and then press the bar back to the position you starts with. Remember not to touch the bar to your upper chest; this will cause an unnecessary stress on your shoulder joints. Take considerable care while lowering the bar, do that gradually and carefully. Repeat the motion for as many repetitions as you can.

Incline Bench Dumbbell Press

Exercise Guidance: This workout resembles the Hammer grip incline dumbbell press, except the fact that you will hold each dumbbell with a regular grip instead of a hold where your palms are pointed inward. Place yourself on a free standing incline bench. Ask your spotter to hand you two dumbbells, one on each hand. Now press these dumbbells upward in an explosive manner and return to the starting position slowly and gradually. Repeat this for as many repetitions as you can.

Incline Dumbbell Flyes

Exercise Guidance: This exercise bear a resemblance to the incline cable flyes. The difference being that you will use the dumbbells in each hand in place of the cable pulleys. Lie on a free standing incline bench. Get hold of two dumbbells, one in each hand. Grip these dumbbells with your palms looking inside toward one another. When you start your exercise, stretch your arms wide out to your sides and keep your elbows bent slightly. Remember to keep your palms facing inward and towards one another. When you raise the dumbbells together, think about hugging the trunk of a giant tree. At the climax of the movement, squeeze your pectorals together for one-count. When returning back to the start position, make sure to lower the dumbbells slowly and gradually. Repeat this exercise for as many repetitions as you can.

A weak upper chest is pretty more common than an underdeveloped mid-chest or a lower-chest. So for all those with a weak chest hit that weakest area while you have the enthusiasm and have the most strength to dedicate. A long-term commitment to such a priority will in the long run bring your upper-chest at par with the rest of your body thus making you look proportionate.

Exercise with the Dumbbells- Dumbbell Pullover

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

The Dumbbell pullover is a stretching exercise that facilitates you to get more benefit out of using moderate weights and more repeats. Make sure to add weight to the Dumbbell Pullover exercise gradually and in a progressive manner.

According to your body structure and how much exercise you can do, you can feel it working on the chest, or the lats, or a combination of both. So you can include Dumbbell pullovers with your back or chest workouts sessions. The most important thing is to you do them steadily so that you can get the desired results.

If you are interested in building your overall size and a muscular physique, it will certainly involve building your back other than just your arms and your chest. Building your back muscles is not at all an easy task since the back muscles are the largest group of muscle on the upper body. This means that the training of the back is actually going to need a lot of time, a lot of energy and great focus.

When you are doing the dumbbell pullovers as a back exercise, do it either at the beginning or at the end of a workout. When you do this for the first time you will tire your chest, your shoulders, your triceps and as well as your back. As you keep doing it and involving more and more back exercise then only your back and your shoulders will remain concerned thus easing out the stress from the chest and the triceps.

When doing the Dumbbell pullovers for lats remember to place the stress directly on the lats and secondary stress on the triceps, your chest muscles, your upper back and the rear deltoids. This Dumbbell pullover should always be done on a flat exercise bench and using a dumbbell. The added benefits of a lat pullovers is that it widens the rib cage and add better physique to your upper torso and the expansion of the chest muscles.

Once you the Dumbbell pullovers for lats are mastered, move to the cross bench dumbbell pullovers variation of the Dumbbell Press exercise. This deviation involves a great balancing act.

The result of a cross bench dumbbell pullovers is worth the uneasiness of lying at 90 degrees to a flat bench with support only to your upper back and the whole weight being held by your legs and pulling a dumbbell from almost a hanging stretch position at the back of your head to a position which is just above your eye level. This is done as you try to keep the balance and also fight to maintain the degree of bend in your elbows.
For the maximum benefit out of this workout, remember to lower your hips every time you bring the weight down with your arms. This will help you to get a full stretch out of your muscles.

By doing pullovers as a staple exercise in your workout routine you are going to experience a good upper body growth spurt and also notice an improvement in your flexibility and mobility for a lot of your other exercises as well. Give it a try and don’t be surprised if you add an inch or two to your chest measurement in as little as 6 weeks.

Diamond Pushups: Get Ready To Work

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

The pushup is one of the most multifaceted types of an exercise. You can do the pushups anywhere, at anytime and with various sorts of variations. These deviations work on the muscles differently and forcing muscle confusion and ultimately the muscle growth! Exercise along with healthy food results in a good body.

Particularly the diamond pushups are great for the triceps! Along with working and building on the Pecs and shoulders this pushup is a great addition to any workout routine!

The Exercise

  • Place your hands on the ground while kneeling down on your knees. Place your hands in a fashion so that both of your index fingers and the thumbs are touching making a diamond inside the gap.
  • Raise your body up so that only your toes and your hands make contact with the floor. Ensure that your back is straight. Diamond pushups inner chest tightens the core muscles of the chest and also that of the quadriceps, glutes, the abdominal muscles and the lower back muscles.
  • Now bend your elbows and lower yourself to the ground gradually and at the same time keep your body as straight as possible.
  • Get down as low as you can. Remember to only go that far as you can go and then come back up. Even though you can only manage a few inches of height that is absolutely fine. With time this gets better!
  • Do as many repeats as you can! After a diamond pushup, triceps can feel the burn.

Some Points

• This one is normally pretty tough for the beginners and since the triceps haven’t developed as yet and are not powerful enough. In other words, a beginner won’t be able to go low or to do many repeats. It just takes only some time so doesn’t give up!
• If you are having a difficulty with the pushups, you can move your hands at a distance until you are more able to complete a few repeats. As you start to get stronger, move your hands closer for a better exercise.
• If you can do the Diamond pushups with ease, adding a little deviation to add a little bit of intensity. As for example, try holding one leg almost 2 feet off the ground and for 5 repeats. And then, switch to another leg. This will target the core and will add a lot of resistance to each of your arm individually.
• Another way of adding intensity is to hold a weight plate on your back all through the motion! Along with adding some amount of resistance to the movement, it will force your core muscles to work much harder and stabilize your back. But always remember to keep your core muscles tight all through the exercise!

Diamond Push up:

Position your body in a straight and horizontal pose. Now stand with your feet a little apart to almost shoulder-width distance. Bring your hands together and place them together directly under your sternum, with the tips of your index fingers and thumbs touching each other. Your fingers and the thumb should form a design of a diamond or triangle in between the fingers. The Diamond Pushups benefits your triceps as well as your back and pecs.