Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Dumbbell Curl & Arnold Press


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Here is a neat upper-body combination movement that works biceps, triceps, and shoulders.

The dumbbell press portion was a favorite of Arnold (you know the one). He liked to start the press with his palms facing him, and as the weights are pressed overhead they rotate to face forward. Retrace the movement in the reverse coming down. Try it. It has a nice flow.

Now, what I've added is to first simply curl the weights to shoulder level, and then begin Arnold's overhead press. Curl, press, return. Curl, press, return. The entire compound movement can be done either sitting or standing. I like to stand because it forces me to keep my abs tight, as they should be when doing overhead presses of any kind.

As always, don't hold your breath. Get a nice inhale-exhale rhythm going.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This one is GREAT. I never thought to combine these two before, but great idea. I've been doing sitting presses (I got this from the BFL book, I guess), but I like your logic for why to do the move standing.

Carole