The Body Sculpting Bible for Women (64 page)

As you reach the top of the exercise, you can either touch the dumbbells together (as shown in picture C) or press them straight up (as shown in Picture B) like a bench press. You can play around with different positions at the top of the movement as you may get a better muscle contraction varying the dumbbell positions. Two people may use two different dumbbell variations in order to fully stimulate their chest muscles. The most important thing you are concerned with is getting the most intense contraction possible! There are a couple of different ways to do this. You can simply touch the dumbbells together and squeeze, or you can turn the dumbbells slightly inward at the top of the movement, allowing for a more controlled and isolated contraction.

Begin lowering the weight while holding your proper postural alignment throughout the exercise.

As your elbows and the back of your arms reach parallel or bench level, slowly begin to press the dumbbells up again in a controlled, smooth, fluid motion, without using any momentum.

Flat Dumbbell Fly

This exercise is truly a great one. It might seem a bit hard to master, but once you do, it will be a pleasure to perform. It might look as if this exercise is identical to the dumbbell bench press, but it is not. With the dumbbell press, you are extending at the elbow joint and utilizing something called horizontal adduction (a movement together) of the shoulder joints. The flat dumbbell fly focuses on the mid-chest muscles and incorporates only the shoulder joints—not the elbow joint—in the movement. The elbows must be locked into place to allow the true magic to begin.

TECHNIQUE AND FORM

For this exercise, your postural alignment will be very similar to the other two chest exercises, but your technique and form will be very different. You will retract the shoulder blades just as you did in the flat and incline dumbbell press, but the angle of the movement is changed. Instead of using the combination of horizontal shoulder adduction (when the shoulders move inward), and elbow extension (when the elbows flex and extend during pressing), for this exercise you’ll lock the elbow joint in place. You will set up the arms just as you would for the flat dumbbell press with the arms wide and forearms perpendicular to the floor, but having the elbows locked will prevent any elbows extension or flexion. This technique will exclude the triceps from being involved in the exercise while focusing the resistance completely within the chest muscles.

You’ll want to align your body exactly as you did with the flat dumbbell press, but now you will have the palms of your hands facing each other instead of facing the wall in front of you. Your forearms will be facing the ceiling, rather than the wall in front of you.

This time you’ll be using a visualization technique while engaged in the movement of the exercise. As you begin to squeeze the dumbbells towards each other, you will be following an arch-shaped movement. As you follow this arch, I want you to picture yourself hugging a tree. In other words, make believe there is a tree between you and the dumbbells; you will be mimicking the exact motion of hugging it. This visualization technique will help keep you in the correct position to follow the arch movement. All of this will ensure that your chest muscles receive the most intense stimulation and contraction possible.

As you reach the top of the movement, be sure to consciously contract the chest muscles as hard as you possibly can for maximum muscle stimulation!

Begin lowering the weight while holding the proper alignment, technique and form throughout the movement. As you reach the bottom of the movement, be sure not to let the back of the arms go too far below the level of the flat bench as this could cause injury to the shoulders’ rotator cuff. When you do reach the bottom of the movement, slowly begin squeezing the dumbbells upward in an arch again with a smooth, controlled, fluid motion, making sure that you avoid using momentum!