Page 94 - Demo

94 || MOST FITNESS || JUNE / JULY 2016 If you have access to monkey bars, then that%u2019s great! If not, you can perform this exercise closer to the floor hanging off of a secured squat rack bar. With body in an almost horizontal position with feet on the floor, place arms far enough that both have room to bend to 90 degrees when chest is pulled close to the bar. Then slowly lower your body into a straight arm position and allow your scapula to protract (shoulder blades to be pulled forward slightly) as seen in (image 2.) Then on the way back up, START by pulling your shoulder blades back all the way trying to pinch them together behind you. Then start bending at the elbow to reach back to the start position.An important trick you should be doing to make this workout more effective is to continuously be putting tension on your back by mentally pulling the bar apart in separate directions (left hand pushing out left, while right hand is pushing out to your right). This focus of pulling the bar apart should be consistent and simultaneous with lowering and raising your body as shown from (image 1) to (image 3). If you choose to make this exercise more challenging, simply pull the bar apart HARDER. By pulling the bar apart, you are applying force inline with the direction of the muscle fibres. This can create A LOT of tension in the desired muscles, which will create a greater contraction without adding any extra %u201cweight.%u201d Heavy weight is not necessarily what causes hypertrophy (muscle growth). Heavy weight will cause tension on the muscles, but you can create just as much tension with added precision and using slightly lighter weights and focusing on the contraction. With exercises like this, you have to WANT to make it hurt. The weight won%u2019t be doing the work for you. It is beneficial to be able to mentally induce the contraction of the muscle during the exercise. Even if the weight is light, by focusing you can still achieve a solid contraction in the desired muscle. Muscle contraction is directly correlated to your goal of hypertrophy, where the weight used is only associated with the muscle gain. Set the machine to a light weight. Lock both arms and pull straight down while focusing on using mostly your triceps to complete this motion. Make sure once you reach the position in (image 2), that your shoulders are pinned back and down and both arms remain fully locked. Extend your upper spine (push your chest up), while squeezing your triceps as much as you can. Then once you are fatigued and feel that you