Start with a barbell and your choice of weight. Hinge at the hips, keeping your back in a neutral position. Use an overhand grip on the bar and begin to pull it to the bottom portion of your chest and then lower the weight back down towards the floor.
* Keep spine neutral and parallel to the floor
* Do not bounce
* Squeeze the shoulders together in the back on each rep
Start by choosing your resistance. Your yellow and green bands are the lightest resistance, then work your way up to red, blue and black.
Keep yourself in a half squatted position and your toes pointed forward. Begin the move by laterally stepping to the side, letting the other foot follow behind.
* Do not cross feet or bring the feet together
* Stay in a half squatted position with chest up
* Keep toes pointed forward
Begin with dumbbells at your side. Step backward into a 90-degree lunge at the knee, and then stand to the starting the position.
* Chest up and shoulders back
* 90-degree angle at the knees
* Track knees behind the toes
Begin on all fours on your mat. Keeping a flat back and tight core lift one arm and the opposite leg up and reach in opposing directions, hold for three seconds and switch limbs.
* Keep hands directly under the shoulder joint.
* Lift opposing limbs at the same time.
* You can modify this exercise to make it easier by dropping to your hands and knees, keeping the one knee on the mat the whole time.
Set your cable handle just above the shoulder height. Grab the handle and step forward with the opposite leg. Bring the chest up and tuck the tailbone. Begin to push the handle forward to complete the press.
* Do not rotate the torso
* Keep the chest up and core tight
Begin this exercise with an incline bench. Be sure that the angle of the bench is between a 30 and 45-degree angle, any higher than a 45 and your chest press will turn into a shoulder press. Press the tailbone firmly into the bench and squeeze the shoulder blades together. Start to fly your arms out and down toward the floor keeping your elbows slightly bent.
* Slight bend in the elbows
* Do not bend and extend the arms
* Keep the dumbbells over the chest and not the face
It's important to note that on most chest exercises, to target the pecs fully, you must press the tailbone into the bench and squeeze the shoulder blades together before starting the pressing movement. If you do not have shoulder issues, you can go past 90 degrees with the elbows to get a deeper stretch and lengthier contraction of the muscle.
* Squeeze shoulder blades together
* Tuck tailbone
* Keep the weight over the chest, not over the face
The Drop Squat can be another one of your plyometric exercises. Start with feet together, simultaneously jump your feet out to land in a full squat position, then jump them back together to your starting position.
* Keep back in a neutral position
* Track knees behind the toes
* Keep feet pointing forward
Want a chest exercise that isolates the pec major? Here it is....the Cable Chest Fly is an isolated movement becuase it utilized only one joint at a time.
Begin this exercises by grabbing your handles and stepping forward slightly.
You may use a split stance for balance.
Keep your chest up and elbows straight with a soft bend.
Bring your hands backward and then forward, bringing your hands together in the front and squeeze the pecks.
* No bending and extending the elbows during this movement
* Keep chest up
The Lunge Pulse is a sure way to fire up your quads. Apply the basic principals of a lunge to start this movement: One knee is bent at ninety degrees in front of your body and the other is bent at ninety degrees underneath you, knee resting directly under the head. From this position, you simply lift the knee on the ground to about 6-12" off the ground and return it to the ground over and over for any given duration of time. You perform one leg entirely, and then the other.
