Back Workout Tips For Seniors — With Clark Bartram
Video
Description
How Clark Keeps His Physique At 53:
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Hey guys,
It’s Clark Bartram here, one of your new Coaches for Abs After 40 Advanced and the president of frog fitness.
I want to show you today how to become stronger in your shoulders and back… And how to improve your pull-ups.
First we’ll start with some pull-up form. Watch how I perform the pull up from a completely extended position – my arms are not already bent. Then I pull myself up to the bar until my chest is getting somewhat close.
This is a full pull up, and unfortunately I see a lot of guys butcher this movement and cut themselves short on it.
If you have trouble doing a full pull up – that’s okay! You’re not alone… And that’s why you have me here today.
One thing we can do is add help from a resistance band. if you just put it around your feet or your knees, make sure it’s secure…. It allows you to get a little bit of assistance in your pull up.
You can find different sizes of these bands and they can provide you with more or less intensity, whatever you need… but over time, you want to be working down to the thinnest or least resistant band to continue progressing in your strength and ability to pull yourself up.
If you don’t have these bands, you can also use a partner to help hold your feet.
Another evolution to the push up is performing the eccentric motion only. You can step up on a box and hop up so that you’re lifting your body into the top of the pull-up position, and then slowly lower yourself down.
There’s a principle for building muscle and strength called time under tension, and that’s what we’re doing right now – keeping the muscle under tension for a longer time than if you just did a normal pull up repetition.
Yet another thing you can do is just isometric holds, so literally just holding yourself up in the top of the pull up position. It’s a step backward from the slow eccentric movement, but it’s still going to help you improve your body’s ability to pull-up.
Next up let’s work on the shoulders. Don’t let your ego take over and cause you to start off with some crazy weight that you lifted when you were younger because we really have a high risk for injury in the shoulders. Make sure you warm up a LOT before starting out – see if you feel any pain or impingement beforehand.
The move we’re going to start with is a lateral raise – and I don’t want to see you “chicken winging it.” Make sure you’re also keeping your arm parallel as you raise the dumbbell up. Use a weight that’s light enough so that you’re not swinging the weight up, otherwise you’re taking the tension off the muscle during that movement.
If you can consistently let go of your ego, safely work your way up while you place increasingly heavier demands on your muscles… They will grow. The body adapts, and it does it well.
Make sure you check out my new program that Mark Mcilyar and I put together – Abs After 40 Advanced – to get a more in-depth look at how to effectively reduce fat mass while increasing strength, mobility, flexibility, and muscle size… All designed for men over 40. See how we do it here:
Thanks for checking out the video today, and don’t forget to share it with your friends
-Clark B
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Don’t let your age limit your physical potential:
