The Body Sculpting Bible for Women (58 page)

Plant your feet evenly on each side of the platform and point them straight ahead.

Slightly contract the abdominal muscles.

Stick your chest out and retract the scapula and shoulder blades.

Keep your elbows close to your body and hands down by your lower abdominals.

Keep your head level and look straight ahead throughout the movement.

TECHNIQUE AND FORM

First, to avoid lower-back injury, make sure that your knees are bent and that you don’t lean too far forward. A very slight lean forward is okay.

With the arms fully stretched forward, retract the scapula from this position. This will pre-isolate the lat muscles of the back.

Your objective will be to pull the bar back to your lower-to-mid abdominal section, making sure you adhere to the following steps.

You will want to keep the elbows riding close to the body, helping to stimulate the back muscles. The farther you bring the arms away from the body, the less the desired muscles will be stimulated.

As you begin pulling the bar toward your abdominal section, stick your chest out as far as it will go while you strive to sit straight up. Do not lean backwards.

Concentrate completely on the lat muscles of the back so they do most of the work.

When the bar reaches your abdominal section squeeze the back muscles as hard as you possibly can. Picture having an egg planted square in the middle of your back. While the bar is touching your abdominal section, your main objective, while contracting the muscles of the back as hard as you can, will be to squeeze your shoulder blades together so hard that the egg breaks.

Hold the contracted position for a count of two seconds.