The Body Sculpting Bible for Women (81 page)

PROPER ALIGNMENT

Stand in a neutral position. Your feet should be just under shoulder width apart, your knees slightly bent, your shoulders back and your chest out.

You should be holding a light weight in each hand, your palms facing behind you.

Bend your arms so that the upper and lower arms are at a 90 degree angle, your arms parallel to the floor and extended before you.

TECHNIQUE AND FORM

Exhale and rotate your shoulders so that your hands rise about you elbows and your palms face front.

Slowly return to the start position. At no time should your arms not be in a 90-degree angle, as this could cause stress or injury on your rotator cuff.

Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Chapter 10

Triceps

The triceps muscle, located on the back of the upper arm, can be tricky to develop, which is why many women worry about having flabby arms. That’s because this three-headed muscle requires different angles of training for full development. A lot of people don’t realize that just one exercise for most body parts simply won’t cut it, unless you want a simple looking body with simple looking muscles. Specific exercises will stimulate specific muscles to work as primary muscles and incorporate other muscles to work as the secondary muscles. The following exercises incorporate all angles of training, providing total triceps muscle development for flab-free and superbly toned arms. The most important thing to remember with this and all exercises is to concentrate on keeping your form and technique correct during the exercise movement.

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Overhead Dumbbell Extension

The overhead dumbbell extension focuses on the middle and inner heads of the triceps muscle. You can do this exercise either while seated or while standing. We recommend you do the seated version, as you will be less likely to cheat using momentum and injuries will be less likely to occur. One very important thing to remember is to keep the elbows pointed to the ceiling above you at all times during the movement. This will help create a full range of motion for the triceps. You also need to hold the upper arms close to your head as you extend the weight overhead. Finally, and one of the most important things to remember and perfect with this exercise, is your handgrip on the dumbbell. It is not easy to get a perfectly even grip for both hands with this exercise. If you fail to grip the dumbbell evenly, you may end up directing the force of the dumbbell resistance to one arm more than the other. This will create muscle imbalance between the two muscles. To fix this, you must learn to either grip the top, inner portion of the dumbbell with a separate, even grip for both hands or with an overlapping grip having one hand overlap the other. We recommend that you choose, if available, a dumbbell that adequately allows two separate and even hand grips. Unfortunately, most dumbbells will not allow a great deal of space to securely grip in this fashion, but you might luck out considering your hands may be smaller than most men’s hands. If this is not the case, you must learn to perfect your overlapping grip for better balance and muscle symmetry.

PROPER ALIGNMENT

Choose a weight that you believe to be light enough to practice perfect form. Place the dumbbell on top of your thigh. You can also have someone hand the dumbbell to you from behind. This is especially useful when using very heavy weight and to avoid injuring the shoulder joints.

Sit on a bench with a 90-degree angled back pad.