Health aNd Fitness Guide

Sit on the bench you have available with your hands resting at your side. Take your hands beside your hips and place them palms down on the bench. Your finger should come off the edge of the bench and wrap around comfortably, to stabilize the hands from slipping. Lift your weight off the bench with your arm and shoulder strength and contract yours abs for a central position. Shift your weight forward from the hips, away from the bench about two inches or so. No more than that; you do not want this to go to your shoulders. With your feet flat on the floor in front of you slowly bend your elbows, lowering your erect torso downward toward the floor. You should resemble an elevator going down and up an elevator shaft rather than down and up and escalator (diagonally). Isolate the triceps by maintaining your elbows directly behind you, not bowed out to the side. As you lower your weight down, think of scratching an itch at the lower part of your back.

Focus in front of you as you press up through the back of the arms, and as you reach the top, press your shoulders away from your ears to complete the contraction. Hold the shoulders down away from your ears at all times, not in a shrug position, which is most commonly the problem in this exercise.