Try this out – It feels AWESOME

A couple of year’s ago, I put up a post here called, How to Turn the Glute Ham into the Modern Day Torture Rack.

In that post I combine the Glute Ham Raise with other forms of training in order to bring about some very challenging and fun movements.

The combinations in that post are also awesome. They are challenging and hit your posterior chain HARD!

However, when I put that video and post up, one of the common questions I got from the Diesel Universe was how to employ this sort of training if you do not have a Glute Ham Bench.

Well, I came up with something that works pretty well to bring about this Full Body tension concept.

The Camel Clutch

The Camel Clutch is the submission move done by the Iron Sheik and several other wrestlers. I called this movement the Camel Clutch because you will put yourself into the position that the Iron Sheik would put you in if you challenged him to a match.

Iron Sheik will make you humble.

As you’ll see in the video below, I hook my legs under the bench and lift my torso up off the bench in order to perform flyes.

This reduces the support offered by the bench and taxes the erectors, glutes, and hamstrings more than just performing regular posterior flyes in a bent-over position.

This actually feels great on my back and seems to strengthen the lordotic curve without causing too much hyperextension.

I call this type of training Full Body Tension Training. Close to the entire body is under tension. There could be some other name for it. You can call it what you will.

I feel practicing lifts such as this can help you to more efficiently use Radiant Tension to improve your lifts, especially 1-Rep Max lifts and other lifts where you have to stabilize the body with coordinated tension for best performance in a lift.

Aside from acquainting you with full body tension, there are several other benefits to using movements such as this in your training:

Benefits:

• Improves Posture – Trains the Delts, Rhomboids, Erectors, etc.
• Increased Musculature Involvement – Burns more Calories than the conventional movement
• Increases Demand on the Cardiovascular System, Due to Increased Muscle Involved
• Correct Imbalances in the Hip – Strengthening Glutes and Hip Extensors while Stretching Flexors
• Strengthens the Hamstrings at Knee and Hip Joints

Other Possible Combinations:

This sort of training can be used with many other tools and many other movements.

• Instead of Flyes, set up in front of cable stack and do Face-Pulls, Scarecrows, etc
• Instead of Dumbbells, use bands and perform Pull-Aparts, or Band Bench Press
• Instead of using both legs, hook only one leg (This is so freakin’ hard, I can’t even do it, by the way)
• Instead of performing a lift, perform a feat such as ripping a phone book or bending a nail

Napalm Approved

I LOVE THIS LIFT. I feel like I am getting more benefit out of performing Dumbbell Posterior Flyes by doing them in this manner. I feel overall more challenged by doing the lift in this manner, and by applying this technique to other isolation lifts for the shoulders, those lifts feel more beneficial for me.

Incidentally, I would like to one day try this form of lifting with a decline bench, hooking my legs in at the top and arching away from the bottom of the bench. I think this would remove even more support from the lift and increase the difficulty even more, but I don’t have a Decline Bench, so it might be a while before I try it.

Give this a try with some light weights and let me know how you like it.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

Other Recent Videos

Are Upright Rows Safe as Far as Shoulder Health?
Quartering a Deck of Cards
Dips – Bodyweight (258) + 135 LBS (3-45’s)
Build Muscle Mass and Strength – How to Do Rows the Right Way

Articles You Might Also Like:

• My Most Popular Videos in 2011 – Part 1
• Extreme Hamstring Training – How to Build Big, Powerful Legs
• Core Strength – What are the Top 5 exercises?
• Cossack Squats with 60lbs of Chains
• WARNING – Try at Your Own Risk

Tags: glute ham raise, improve posture, posterior chain, posterior flyes

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 24th, 2011 at 6:04 pm and is filed under core training workouts, core workouts for athletes, muscle-building-workouts, strength training muscle building workouts, strength training to improve athletic performance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.