Chest Expander Warm Ups

The following two exercises were originally published by Joe Bonomo in his classic book, "Power Plus Cable Course".  It is a well written course, and it is a great resource to have.

I find these two to be very good warm up exercises, and, on their own, have great benefit.

1) The body lunge:

Stand with the expander resting in front of your thighs.  Then simply lunge forward with one leg, while at the same time bring the arms forward in front of you (straight arms) and then over the head and lightly behind.  Then reverse the motions back to standing, and then repeat with other leg.  That is one rep.  Best to start with 8 reps and work your way up to 18.

This is truly a warm up exercise to get the blood flowing to all parts of the body.

Tip: keep arms straight, and keep the chest expander taut.  This is a warm-up exercise, so no need to do more than keep the cables taut.

2) Extended Arm-Leg Lunge

Stand with the expander diagonally across the back - left hand down at thigh, right hand at shoulder. Now, lunge forward with the right leg and at the same time, push the right hand directly over-head. Then slowly bring right arm back down as you return to starting position. Start with 8 reps, and gradually increase to 18. Then repeat with the opposite side.

This exercise not only help warm up the body, but does start working the shoulders, as well.

Tip: When breathing, I like to breath IN when I do the press overhead, and breath OUT when I return to starting position.  This will slow down the hand descent, and help keep that aspect of the exercise controlled.