July 21, 2008

Muscle-building Monday

Try this three times this week:

Dumbbell chest flies

Lie on your back on a bench (or a stack of 2-3 standard sized bed pillows if you don't have a bench), arms straight above you (perpendicular to your or towards the ceiling) with a slight bend in your elbows. Palms should be facing each other while holding your dumbbells.

Take two seconds to open your arms to your sides until your elbows are just about parallel to the floor, pause, and take two seconds to bring your arms back to the starting position.

Make sure you are using your pecs/chest muscles to do the lifting. Otherwise you may strengthen the muscle in your arms instead and see no results in your chest.

Do 3 sets of 12 reps, medium weights, rest for 60 seconds between sets.

One variation is to mix up your second counting. Take one second to open your arms and three seconds to return to starting position.

Happy lifting!