Trap & Chest exercises

Bonito

The two areas I could never get the hang of during exercises. Traps and chest. A bridge between definition and size would be nice.

I don't have a bench so bench press might be out of the question. Had to cancel gym membership due to tight funds. My equipment at home is a bar, dumbbells, chin bar and press up handles.

I'll take care of the weight and what I can lift. Just looking for exercise suggestions. Vids/diagrams or good descriptions would help.

The_Kew_Tour

Well for Dumbbell excerises try this site just go and on left you have options to click for Dumbells only if you want too reduce your search

http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/finder/lookup/filter/muscle/id/1/muscle/chest

http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/finder/lookup/filter/muscle/id/11/muscle/traps

shootermacg

Bonito wrote: »

The two areas I could never get the hang of during exercises. Traps and chest. A bridge between definition and size would be nice.

I don't have a bench so bench press might be out of the question. Had to cancel gym membership due to tight funds. My equipment at home is a bar, dumbbells, chin bar and press up handles.

I'll take care of the weight and what I can lift. Just looking for exercise suggestions. Vids/diagrams or good descriptions would help.

To be honest you can make a bench out of almost anything, (2 by 4 even) IMO to work the chest properly you'll probably need some sort of bench because your arms need to dip beyond your back.

As far as traps are concerned just basicBB/DB shrugs will work them fine, watch out you may end up with monster traps (I've had to cut them out because they worked too well)

You could also look into dips, two chairs would do it.

Bonito

I can't do enough shrugs to get any progress. I get a burning sensation in my neck on the left side. It's not a muscular pain anyway. More like a vertebrae? Should I lighten my load and work my way back up? Basically should I do more of a lower weight?

discus

Bonito wrote: »

I don't have a bench so bench press might be out of the question. Had to cancel gym membership due to tight funds. My equipment at home is a bar, dumbbells, chin bar and press up handles.

If you're in Dublin, you can have my old York bench. Don't need it since I moved to Informed Performance!

Remmy

Bonito wrote: »

I can't do enough shrugs to get any progress. I get a burning sensation in my neck on the left side. It's not a muscular pain anyway. More like a vertebrae? Should I lighten my load and work my way back up? Basically should I do more of a lower weight?

Are you rolling your shoulders back slightly or going straight up and down?You might want to get that checked out.

If you have a barbell you can floopress but it is pretty dependant on what weight you are lifting.you can use a sturdy chair behind your head to rest the weight.

Bonito

discus wrote: »

If you're in Dublin, you can have my old York bench. Don't need it since I moved to Informed Performance!

Very kind offer but I'll have to turn you down I've nowhere to put it.

Remmy wrote: »

Are you rolling your shoulders back slightly or going straight up and down?You might want to get that checked out.

If you have a barbell you can floopress but it is pretty dependant on what weight you are lifting.you can use a sturdy chair behind your head to rest the weight.

I can get a good rotation in my shoulders when rolling them. Does it matter which direction. I've used a mirror to make sure I'm doing it right. Feet shoulders apart, back straigh, head looking dead straight keeping chin parallel to the floor and slowly rolling my shoulders back 'til I feel my blades pinch and then slowly letting my shoulders down and bringing them forward.

It only happens left side though? If I were to do it with a dumbbell on my right side alone I get no pain.

Remmy

Bonito wrote: »

Very kind offer but I'll have to turn you down I've nowhere to put it.


I can get a good rotation in my shoulders when rolling them. Does it matter which direction. I've used a mirror to make sure I'm doing it right. Feet shoulders apart, back straigh, head looking dead straight keeping chin parallel to the floor and slowly rolling my shoulders back 'til I feel my blades pinch and then slowly letting my shoulders down and bringing them forward.

It only happens left side though? If I were to do it with a dumbbell on my right side alone I get no pain.

I dunno what the pain is caused by but you really should not be rolling them back on shrugs.It should be just a shrug up and straight down.Rolling back would take the stress off your traps and maybe put it onto your deltoids-not good.