Powelifting Excercises( Upper Body)

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UPPER BODY

Barbell Extensions: This exercise is designed to isolate the medial and outer heads of the triceps. Begin this movement by lying with your back on a bench. Take a medium to close grip on a barbell. Unrack the weight and extend your arms directly above your upper chest. Lower the barbell toward your chin while keeping your upper arms motionless and your elbows turned inward. Reverse the direction by using your triceps to extend your arms to the starting position. Do not let your elbows flare out during the exercise. This movement is best performed keeping the bar away from the forehead. By keeping it closer to the chin we’re isolating those muscles that are more involved with pressing.

Barbell Extensions with Band: Same as above but with a band.

Barbell Extensions on Floor: Same as barbell extensions, but performed on the floor. Performing this movement on the floor takes the legs out of the movement, thus putting more stress on the pressing muscles.

Bench Press: The bench press should be performed with the shoulder blades pulled together and driven into the bench. The elbows should be in a tucked position. The bar should hit you in the lower chest area. It must be pushed in a straight line, not back over the face.

Close Grip Bench Press: Lay on the bench with your shoulder blades pulled together and pressed firmly into the bench. Grab the bar with a close grip; for this program you’ll want one finger on the smooth part of the bar. Begin the exercise by unracking the bar and lowering it with your elbows in a tucked position. Lower the bar to your lower chest. Keeping your elbows in a tucked position, press the bar back to the starting position.

Close Grip Incline Presses: This is your standard close grip bench press. Grab the bar with a grip one or two fingers away from the smooth part of the bar. Use good bench technique as described with the regular bench press and lower the bar to your lower chest.

Close Grip Push Downs: There are many ways to perform this exercise, but for this program we’ll use a standard straight bar. Begin the exercise with your knees slightly bent, back arched and erect with your feet shoulder width apart. You’ll also want to keep your ears aligned with your shoulders throughout the movement. Grab the bar with your hands about six inches apart. Pull the bar down to a position where the elbows are tucked against the torso. This is the starting position. Keeping the elbows in a tucked position, press the bar down toward your thighs until your arms are fully extended. After a slight pause return to the starting position.

Dumbbell Cleans: This exercise is designed to isolate the posterior deltoids and upper back. To begin, grab a pair of dumbbells and sit on the edge of a bench. Start the movement by pulling your shoulder blades up and back while at the same time cleaning the dumbbells up to a 90% flexion of the elbows.

Dumbbell Presses: Most people do dumbbell pressing the wrong way for the development of a big bench. You want to make sure you keep your palms facing each other throughout the entire movement. We want to learn to press from the lats with the elbows tucked. When you perform dumbbell presses with your palms forward, your elbows will turn out. Keep your palms in. You also want to do the presses in a ballistic fashion. Let the bells fall with a fast decent, then rebound them back to the top as fast as possible.

Dumbbell Triceps Extensions: This exercise is designed to isolate the lower heads of the inner and outer triceps. Begin by lying on a flat bench on your back. Grab two dumbbells and press them to an extended arm position with palms facing each other. Keeping the upper arm stationary, lower the dumbbell until the ends of the dumbbells hit your shoulders. At this point roll your upper arm back to stretch the triceps, then press and extend the arms back to the starting position.

Elbows Out Extensions: This is one of the best movements for the lower part of the triceps. If you ever get a chance to see a great bencher, look at the mass around the lower upper arm, right above the elbow. This is where the big benches come from, not the upper part of the tricep.
The elbows out extension is designed to bring this area up to par. To perform the movement, press the dumbbells to the starting position above your chest. You want to keep the butts of the bells together as you lower them to your chest, keeping the elbows out. Pause on your chest for a second then press and extend the bells back to the starting position making sure to keep the butts together. This movement can be performed on a flat bench or incline.

Face Pulls: This exercise is designed to work the muscles of the upper back and posterior deltoids with the use of a lat pulldown machine and a straight bar or leather tricep strap. Stand in front of the pulldown machine with your hands spaced on the bar wider than shoulder width. Stand back and pull the bar to your face while keeping your elbows flared out. Try to contract the muscles of your upper back for a couple of seconds before returning to the starting position.

5 Board Presses: Same as the 3 board press except now you’ll be using, you guessed it, five boards. This movement is a great tricep and lockout builder. You want to make sure to press the bar away from your head, i.e., towards the feet.

Floor Press: This is a special max effort exercise designed to help strengthen the midpoint of the bench press. It’s also very effective for increasing triceps strength. This exercise is performed exactly the same as the bench press except you lay on the ground instead of on a bench. Make sure to pause in the bottom of the movement before the accent. This exercise has been used with much success at Westside Barbell Club for the past seven years. Use a medium grip for this movement (pinky on the rings).

Front Plate Raise:This exercise is designed to isolate the anterior heads of the delts. Grab one weight plate with one hand on each side of the plate. In a standing or seated position raise the plate up in front of you until you can see through the hole. Pause for one second, then lower under control. Make sure to keep your body in a rigid position so you won’t cheat the weight up by using body momentum.

JM Press: This exercise is like a close grip bench press mixed with a triceps extension. Start the exercise the same way you would a close grip bench press except make sure the bar is set in a direct line above the upper pecs. If you were to run a plum line from the bar down to the upper pecs, this would be the path the bar is going to follow. Lower the bar down this line until you reach about halfway down. At this point let the bar roll back about one inch, then press the bar back up.

Rear Delt Dumbbell Raises: This is a very basic exercise designed to target the posterior deltoids. To perform this exercise grab two dumbbells and bend at the waist keeping the knees slightly bent and the back flat. Your arms will be hanging straight down from your upper chest. Turn your hands so your palms are facing your feet. Your thumbs should be facing each other.
Raise the dumbbell in an arced direction so your hands end up being slightly above shoulder level. The weights must be rising directly out to the sides for this movement to be done effectively. You can do this from a standing or seated position. We use this exercise to help balance the shoulder complex. The rear delts and external rotators are needed to help stabilize the joint, especially with the great number of pressing exercises you’ll be doing.

Reverse Grip Pushdowns: This exercise is designed to isolate the medial and outer heads of the triceps. Use the same form you do on regular pushdowns, but grab the bar with a reverse (palms up) grip, spacing your hands about ten inches apart.

Side Dumbbell Raises:This exercise is designed to isolate the medial heads of the delts. Grab two dumbbells, stand with your feet shoulder width apart, and keep your back arched and abdominals tight. Your ears, shoulders and hips should stay in alignment. With your palms facing each other, arms bent at a five degree angle and the dumbbells four inches in front of you, raise the dumbbells up and out to the sides. When you reach shoulder level, lower to the starting position.

3 Board Press: This is a special max effort exercise designed to help strengthen the lockout of the bench press. It’s also very effective in increasing triceps strength. This exercise is performed exactly the same as the bench press except you pause the barbell on a board that’s placed on your chest. The board for this workout will be three "2 x 6" boards about twelve inches in length. Make sure to pause the bar on the boards before the ascent.

Ultra Wides:The ultra wide bench press is performed the same as the regular bench press except you’ll use an ultra wide grip. This grip would be equal to putting your forefinger on the rings.

Wide Grip Pushdowns: Same as close grip pushdowns, but grab the bar with your hands about 30 inches apart.

0.5 Close Grip Bench Press: This is the same as the close grip bench press but you’ll only bring the bar halfway down, then pause for half a second and press back up.

Final Comments

I was very reluctant to write a training program for a client or athlete I really know nothing about, although I think we’ve developed a good one here for the typical T-mag reader. Make sure to use this as a template to complement your training.
You see, most people are silently looking to be led. If you’re one of these people you’ll never be better than the leader. Most people would rather have it this way because they can always place the blame on someone else for their misfortunes or lack of progress. The weak leaders also want this because it makes them out to be experts and they don’t want you to end up better than them.
I want anyone who reads this to someday become a better bencher than myself. This is the mark of a good coach. This can only happen if I teach you how to teach yourself. Pay attention to the variables of the program and try to determine what works best for you. This will be the key to your continued success.

Additional Notes:

To calculate how much chain to use:

200-300 bench: 20 pounds of chain weight at top
301-400 bench: 40 pounds of chain weight at top
401-500 bench: 60 pounds of chain weight at top
501-600 bench: 80 pounds of chain weight at top
601-700 bench: 100 pounds of chain weight at top
For more information on how to attach the chains, see the Accommodating Resistance article. To order chains, contact Toppers at TopperSupply.com

To calculate bands:

200-300 bench: 40 pounds of band tension at the top and 20 at the bottom
301-400 bench: 60 pounds of band tension at the top and 30 at the bottom
401-500 bench: 90 pounds of band tension at the top and 45 at the bottom
501-600 bench: 90 pounds of band tension at the top and 45 at the bottom

Great info especially about how much chain. thanks!

That's solid info right there Imo..

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TAZ-VIP
MUSCLE MANIAX-VIP
XXL-SENIOR MEMBER

Nice info, thanks man!

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Good stuff bro...thanks for taking the time to share w/ us!

I'm kind of re-reading this article to gain a better understanding of what's going on, but for the most part, I get the gist of it and I thank you for posting this article. It actually seems like a very informative article that could help people like myself (new to bodybuilding) in terms of educating themselves on these terms.

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I don't take prescriptions! I take Colloidal Silver .

nice article, thanks very useful