Matt Furey is an expert in fitness and conditioning. He advocates bodyweight calisthenics above all else and have some very good programs that build overall strength and fitness. Here’s an excerpt from Matt on how to effectively use the chest expander…
“Forgive me for the “poetry,” but reading Dr. Seuss to my son each day has given me new ideas. Ideas about training? No. Ideas about seeing things from a different perspective? Yessiree.
Which brings me to the subject of this letter: The European Strand Pulling Challenge. What I have to tell you is something you can etch in stone right now. And that is … There are muscles all over your body that cannot be adequately trained with weights or with body weight calisthenics.
You may wonder, how do I know this? Good question. I’ll answer by telling you about the shoulder injury I sustained from a combination of:
a. wrestling
b. the gymnastic rings
c. throwing whip-like backhands
The injury sort of crept up on me. Thinking it was just a nagging annoyance, I kept on. Then, in December of 1999, a day after giving a seminar in Philadelphia, I could barely lift my right arm. In fact, the only way I COULD move it was by grabbing beneath the elbow with my left hand and pushing it where I wanted it to go.
I gave it a rest for a week and it felt a bit better, and so, even though I couldn’t use the arm too well, I kept on wrestling, thinking I would eventually get over it. A month later, I stopped wrestling for two months to let it heal. Sure, it got better during that time – but it was still weak.
Whenever I thought I was much better, I would try some Hindu pushups. It would feel okay for awhile, but then, after a couple days, I was back to agony again. Through a combination of deep tissue massage and herbs, the shoulder would feel much better – but because the pain came back when I trained, I feared that my Hindu pushup days were over.
Six months ago I purchased Lifeline USA’s Power Pushup2 – a device you put behind your back to add rubber cable resistance that goes up to 300 pounds. I’m not sure why I ordered it. If my shoulder hurt doing a regular pushup, how would it get better from those with rubber cables? But get better it did.
What I discovered was this: The shaking of the muscles that occurs while using the Power Pushup2 strengthens the stabilizing muscles of the shoulder in a way that cannot be duplicated with weights or with bodyweight calisthenics (minus the rubber cables). Within a few days of using the Lifeline device, my shoulder felt amazingly better. It couldn’t be – but it was true. I worked on Hindu pushups and other exercises to test my shoulder, and I passed with flying colors. No pain while doing them. No pain the next day. Next on the agenda was my attempt to do bodyweight exercises like pullups and bridging gymnastics, that I had not been able to do from the time the injury reached epic pain. What I discovered was this: My shoulder was not only weak on those exercises, but it hurt, too.
I was faced with another problem. How could I develop strength throughout the entire shoulder region? In fact, how could I develop shoulder strength in any imaginable direction? If there was a direction – EVEN JUST ONE DIRECTION – in which my shoulder hurt, I wanted a solution.
I spoke on the phone with Lifeline CEO Bobby Hinds about this. He recommended a rubber cable Chest Expander that the company just came out with. Willing to give anything a try, I had him send me one.
When I started using the Chest Expander, I was in for a major shock. It was hard, hard, HARD work pulling on those cables. I quickly realized what I told you earlier. Remember???? Well, just in case you forgot, it was …. There are muscles all over your body that cannot be adequately trained with weights or with body weight calisthenics.
When I used the Chest Expander, I got the same cable-and-muscle-shaking feeling I got from the Power Pushup 2. But now, I was getting it from every angle and direction I could think of. Every time I pulled on those cables I found another weak link in the chain – another set of muscles that I couldn’t hit from the other exercises I had been practicing.
36 Strand Pulling Exercises
1. Overhead Downward Pull – Knuckles In
2. Overhead Downward Pull – Knuckles Out
3. Two Arms Lateral Raise – Front
4. Two Arms Lateral Raise – Back
5. Right & Left Arm Front Chest Pull Anyhow
6. Two Arms Front Chest Pull at Attention
7. Right & Left Arm Military Press – Behind Back
8. Two Arms Back Press at Attention
9. Dislocation at Attention
10. Two Arms Press from Behind Neck
11. Two Arms Front Chest Pull Anyhow
12. Two Arms Upward Front Chest Pull – Feet apart
13. Two Arms Back Press Anyhow
14. Dislocation Anyhow
15. Right and Left Arm Upward Push Anyhow
16. Right and Left Arm Front Chest Pull – Erect
17. One Arm Curl
18. One Arm Reverse Curl
19. One Arm Forward Raise – Elbow Locked
20. One Arm Tricep Pressup – Behind Back
21. Lying on Back, Above Head Expand With Deep Breathing
22. Seated Front Expander While Lowering Torso to Ground
23. Seated Expander (Behind Shoulders) While Lowering Torso to Ground
24. Lying Expander with Leg Lifts
25. Lower Back Stretch With Front Chest Pull
26. Front Chest Expander With Inward Wrist Curl
27. Standing Leg Pulldown
28. One Arm Clean With One Foot In Loop
29. One Arm Snatch With One Foot In Loop
30. One Arm High Pull
31. One Arm Cross Body Row
32. Lying One Leg Press
33. Lying Leg Expander
34. Lying One Leg Extension
35. Lying One Leg Curl
36. Lying One Hip and Leg Pushdown
Now that’s an impressive list, isn’t it? I realize that when most people think of a Chest Expander, they think of a device that works the arms and shoulders.
Tags: bench press, bench pressing, chest expander
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