Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Wednesday Workout -- Watch Those Elbows, Honey!

The LTR weekly shares some of his workout and fitness tips:

For those of you who are interested in displaying their manliness by a massive bench press, you need to mind those elbows. What am I talking about?

Stand in the benching area of your gym (sorry, you can’t learn this one in the steam room ) and watch the guys benching. I’ve been doing this for months at my gym, and have seen two common recurrent themes that are certainly hurting many a good man’s efforts to build the monster bench.

First, watch the width of your grip. What you should be shooting for is shoulder width. Any closer than that, and most of the work is being done by your triceps. Any wider than that, and you’re all shoulders. Now both of those muscle groups need attention, but benching is all about building up those pecs…and if you want to work your way out of that training bra, then you need to watch your grip width.

Second, and perhaps most importantly, pay attention to your elbows. When you bring the bar down, your elbows must remain close to your body . If you allow those elbows to flail out (going perpendicular to your body) you have put yourself in a very weak position and will fall short of your potential. (Flailing elbows=weakling; Tucked elbows = Macho muscle stud)

Keep both of those concepts in mind, and your bench will be a real riser around the gym.

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