4. WORK YOUR LOWER BODY, UPPER BACK, AND BICEPS
Jump squat/sternum chinup
Stand under a chinup bar with your feet shoulder-width apart and your hands at your sides.
Lower your body by bending your knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor, then jump up to the chinup bar so that your palms are facing you and shoulder-width apart when you grab it.
Using the momentum from your jump, pull yourself up until your chest touches the bar. You’ll have to arch backward to pull this off.
Lower yourself to the starting position, then repeat.
Do one or two sets of 12-15 repetitions. This one is tough on your palms, so consider gloves.
To build more muscle: Lower yourself slowly on the chinup—take up to 10 seconds. Or do three or four chinups after each jump.
ROLL YOUR OWN
Here’s how to create your own hybrid exercises
A good multipart exercise has to be challenging to all the muscles you’re trying to work. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, since most hybrid exercises combine upper- and lower-body movements. And, unless something has gone tragically wrong, your lower-body muscles are a heck of a lot stronger than the stuff you like to flex in your bathroom mirror. So you need to put your bigger muscles at some sort of mechanical disadvantage while giving your smaller muscles a kick-start.
You can make up your own moves or experiment with some of these combinations that the strength coach Alwyn Cosgrove uses with the athletes he trains. Each allows momentum for upper-body muscles and requires balance from the lower body.
1. Lateral stepup/hammer curl Stand with a step or bench beside you and hold dumbbells at your sides, palms facing in. Step side-ways onto the bench with one foot, and as you rise, curl the weights to your shoulders.
2. Front squat/shoulder press With a barbell or dumbbells, squat down with the weight resting on the front of your shoulders. Then, as you stand up, use the momentum to help press the weight overhead.
3. Lunge with overhead press Stand holding dumb-bells at your shoulders. As you lunge forward or backward, press the weights overhead. Return to the starting position, then lower the dumbbells.
» Fitness archive
Men's Health Philippines - August 2005 Issue
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Jump squat/sternum chinup
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