My favorite PULLING exercises
March 5, 2008
If you have read my free report or listened to my spot on the Naked Nutrition Radio this week, you know that I am a big proponent of balancing out the shoulder complex through proper exercise choices. Through my years training people and taking care of injuries, it has become painfully obvious that most people have strength programs that are dominated by pushing type of exercise and very few pulling exercises.
We live in a world where people like to focus on the muscle groups that they can see easily in the mirror and neglect the ones that they just can’t. Go to any gym and you will see people bench-pressing in various forms all day long.
As I have said before, my belief based on experience and a lot of research has lead me to develop programs that have a 2:1, or better, 3:1 ratio between pulling exercises and pushing exercises. What this means is for every one ‘push’ exercise you do, you need to plug-in at least two or three pulling exercises to balance out the program. As I mentioned on the NN-radio pod cast, you can manipulate this in many ways. If you are pressed for time, you can add more sets of the pulling type and more reps if you just can’t find the time to add more exercises. My thought is that it is still better to have two or three more pull type of exercises.
Here is a list of some of my favorite kinds of “pulling” exercises:
- Low Cable Row/Seated Row
- Dumbbell Row with support - Place one knee on a bench and the opposite leg on the floor. Row the dumbbell up until your elbow is bent past 90 degrees. Slowly return the dumbbell to starting position (arm extended)
- Face Pulls - Use a cable pull and “pull” the handles, or rope attachment to your face. (eye level). See picture.
- Chin Ups - Can either use a narrow grip (hands close together) or a wider grip (hands farther apart)
- Incline Bench Dumbbell Rows - While lying face down on an incline bench, pick up a dumbbell in each hand. With your elbows in close to your body, “row” the dumbbells up, while pinching your upper back together. Slowly return the dumbbells down, extending your arms.
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