As you may have gathered
from reading my articles, I like to take exercises and
do things with them that most people would consider insane.
To me, that's fun - and I'm guessing, since you're reading
this, that's fun for you, too!
Well, I've got another good
one for you. This takes a simple, standard exercise (the
dumbell bench press) and pushes it to a whole new level
of challenge!
For this exercise, all you
need is a bench (or a ball - I prefer to do dumbell presses
on the ball because you can wrap your back around the
ball and open up your rib cage - much better effect on
the chest) and a pair of dumbells. (don't mind the weight
vest - it's not necessary for this exercise - I just happened
to be doing all my training wearing one at the time).
The first time you do this,
pick a weight you could do about 10 reps with. Get into
position on the bench/ball and do your first set. I'm
not going to go into detail about how to do a press here
- the fun starts in a few seconds!
So with that weight, do
4 or 5 reps. Now the rest-pause...but instead of setting
the dumbells back down on the floor and taking a full
rest, you're going to do something different...
You're going to rest the
dumbells on your chest! Basically, bring them together
and set them right on your rib cage - use your arms to
just keep them in position but try to take the tension
off the pecs as much as possible.
Why is this good? We'll,
it's a way to extend the set without losing the tension
in the upper body. This places great demands on the torso
musculature.
The other benefit? Power
breathing. Inflating your lungs against the weight of
the dumbells pressing down on your chest is tough and
you'll really feel those breathing muscles working. Improving
your breathing strength is a fast way to improve overall
strength and endurance.
So after about 10 seconds
resting the dumbells like this, bring the dumbells back
to the bottom position of the press then do another 3
reps or so. Repeat the dumbell resting on chest thing
for another 10 seconds or so. Now finish with a couple
of more reps.
At this point, you will
be challenging every major muscle group in your upper
body.
It's a tough one and well
worth trying out! I found it to be an excellent way to
improve breathing strength (as I mentioned above) and
increasing bench press endurance.
