March 7, 2006
How To: Swiss Ball Dumbbell Bench Press
How to perform a dumbbell bench press on a swiss ball with an animated image showing the move. Click on the picture to see the full sized animation.
- Lay on a swiss ball with your upper back supported by the swiss ball and your feet flat on the ground in front of you.
- The closer your feet are to one another, the harder it will be to stabilize yourself on the swiss ball. (This is a good thing.)
- Grasp two dumbbells next to your chest with your palms facing in.
- Press the dumbbells up above your chest.
- As your arms reach full extension, twist the dumbbells so that your palms are facing forward.
- Do not lock your elbows.
- Pause, and then lower the dumbbells back to the starting position. Reverse the twisting motion so that your palms are facing inward when you reach the lowest point.
- The dumbbells should be level with your chest, with your elbows hanging below the swiss ball.
Depending upon how comfortable you are on a swiss ball, you want to work towards bringing your legs close to one another. The idea is to work your core to keep yourself from rolling off of the swiss ball. Your range of motion on a swiss ball may not be quite as low as it is when you are doing a dumbbell bench press on a flat bench, and that is okay.
- Another animated swiss ball bench press
- New weight program for the missus (Part II)
- Active vs Passive Resistance (or, why keep your balance on a swiss ball?)
- New weight program for the missus
- How To: Dumbbell Bench Press
May 5th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
[...] The other way to encourage muscle growth is by resisting the movement of a mass of some kind. [..] The natural inclination when you are on a swiss ball is to roll to the side. You engage your obliques to prevent your body from twisting, and the fact that you are trying to prevent your torso from rolling onto the floor is a great exercise in and of itself. You are training your body to do more than one thing at a time, and you are causing your muscles to learn how to work together to accomplish a goal. [...]
October 9th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
[...] Another animated swiss ball bench press The Health and Fitness blog has an animated picture of a swiss ball bench press. Back in March, I wrote an animated How To for the swiss ball bench press. If you have not given this exercise a try yet, then I highly recommend that you do. [...]
March 10th, 2007 at 2:31 am
[...] continued the animated lifting series with instructions on how to do swiss ball dumbbell bench presses. I also had another dietary workout tip where I suggest that you always eat before and after [...]