The Body Sculpting Bible for Women (90 page)

TECHNIQUE AND FORM

With the dumbbells on your thighs, thrust one leg up, leveraging one dumbbell up to around your chest level.

Immediately thrust the second dumbbell upward while simultaneously allowing momentum and the dumbbells to guide you back into the lying position; use your abdominal muscles to help safely ease you into position.

Lay back and align your body using the alignment instructions presented for chest exercises but retracting the scapula to bring the chest above the shoulders.

Once you are in position, instead of bringing the dumbbells to the outside of the chest, hold them close to your chest. The handles of the dumbbells and palms of your hands must face each other with the elbows riding close to your body during movement. Your forearms must be perpendicular to the ceiling during the entire exercise. This close-grip movement will stimulate the inner chest muscles while a primary emphasis will be delivered to the triceps muscles as well.

Because your shoulder muscles are more likely to move the weight than your chest muscles, you must retract the shoulder blades back or together against the flat bench. This slight variation will take the shoulders out of the chest movement, allowing the chest and triceps muscles to be the primary muscles working during the exercise.

With the chest in its elevated position, the elbows out and wide and the forearms perpendicular to the floor, press the dumbbells up toward the ceiling.

As you press the weight up, put your mind into the chest and triceps muscles by concentrating on and feeling the muscles contract as you push upward.

As you reach the top of the exercise, you must continue to consciously focus on the targeted muscles while physically contracting these muscles as hard as you possibly can. Your goal is to get the most intense contraction possible in the top position!

In this position, squeeze and hold for a count of one to two seconds.

Slowly begin lowering the weight while holding proper postural alignment throughout the exercise.

As the dumbbells are lowered to the start position, they should touch your chest. This allows for a full stretch of the chest and triceps muscles.

Without rest, slowly begin to press the dumbbells up again in a controlled, smooth, fluid motion, without using any momentum.