Stability Ball Exercises: Chest Presses

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm going to show you how to do a chest press as you are doing a bridge. We are going to take the body, roll it out until you get into a 90 degree angle and we are going to make sure that your ankles, your knees, and your hips are in a straight line. You are going to bring your free weights up. Your free weights, starting weight is 5 to 8 pounds, you can go up heavier if you need to. We are going to pull the elbows open as you press up, you want to think about not locking the elbows, keep the joints slightly bent. As you come down you want to make sure that the elbows do not completely open, so we want to keep them almost in line with the shoulders, keep the bridge up. You want to make sure that your bottom doesn't drop, putting pressure on your lower back. Keep the gluts engaged, the hips in line with the knees and we are just slowly pressing up and down. Form is really important on this one so you want to make sure that your head and your shoulders are on the ball. We don't want to be up here where your lower back is on the ball as you are pushing up because it is going to be putting a lot of restraint in your neck so as you are setting up keep your free weights down by your side and you are going to come from a seated position to roll yourself all the way down until you feel your head and your shoulders touch the ball. We are going to repeat between 8 and 15 reps. You are exhaling as you push up and inhale as you lower down so things to really think about is to keep your wrist straight, try not to let them cock, try not to let your elbows drop down below the shoulders, keep them in line with the shoulders as you push up. Your back needs to be really stable, keep the abs locked in, exhale and inhale. So a couple of key pointers to remember is you've got your 90 degree angles with your lower body, your shoulders and your head need to stay on the ball. Keep that 90 degree angle with your shoulders, elbows, and wrists. You can also open this up into a fly and do your fly work for working all those muscles across your chest, keep those abs engaged and you'll be ready to go. So that is how you do your chest press in a bridge position."