Here are a few videos we posted this week and a new one plus a little but helpful variation on the ‘loosen up’ exercise..

This combination move will help you loosen up your posture from hips right up through spine and shoulders. The initial movements we show are to illustrate trying to loosen up and lose the slouching, rounded forward posture so common these days. You goblet squat down and up then simply lift same dumbbell up over head and back for a triceps extension. Don’t go heavy on the dumbbell and aim for at least 15 medium paced reps.

Here is a slight variation on the same move for those with really tight shoulders. Our client Gaetan (hence the moniker) just happen to grab the dumbbell sideways and we went with it as a way to allow a bit greater width until shoulders and upper back relaxed. T had a bit of fun with the camera so you could see the full move head to toe. You would of course require a dumbbell that can be held by the ends. It does help because you don’t need to lift the dumbbell as high to clear your head.

Here we utilize two simple but smart methods to reduce trap involvement in your shoulder work when doing dumbbell raises.  At the start I show the shrugging up action you want to avoid to best target your deltoids/shoulders. The first idea is to simply use extra heavy dumbbells and only work the bottom half of the side raise. The second technique is to alternate a combo of front and side raise to offset the load. Use a standard load for the second technique.

Here I discuss how and why strength training is misconstrued with regards to conditioning and cardio effect. Check out the audio commentary and don’t sell strength training short.

You can do these 3 moves separately or together but here is the so-called ‘secret’ to making this a high quality move. First off you need to have proper elbow placement which means holding the plate flat at the bottom of the curl and bringing up to throat not chin which then keeps the elbows back. Second when triceps extending you need to push your elbows together and avoid letting them widen which is a cheat and reduces triceps tension. Finally if you squeeze your hands together as you do these moves (like you are squeezing an accordion) you will dramatically increase the effect. The lateral/sideways inward tension adds a whole new dimension to the exercise you will find this squeezing makes it a lot tougher!