back exercise question

[kristieschultz]

HI Cathe,

I simply cannot wait for the new workouts. I have a couple of quick questions for you. I am a new instructor and am teaching one 45 minute body sculpting class twice a week. I noticed in the cardio and weights workout that for back you do deadlifts and deadrows with dumbells. I need some new back exercises for my class and want them to be standing, so these sound perfect. Are they done exactly like you do them in powerhour but with dumbells instead of a bar? Should they be done underhand or overhand? Also can you recommend a good chest exercise that can be done standing, maybe even as a compound exercise. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't really have anyone mentoring me right now so it's a little tough but I'll work it out. I know I can go to turnstep, but I get a little nervous about the safety of the exercises there.

If you're too busy to answer this I totally understand. I appreciate any help you can give. Thanks so much

Kristie

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

Hi Kristie! Yes, we do a deadrow/deadlift compound exercise in the new cardio and weights workout. We use a dumbell for this compound move and we go a bit lighter since it is a pre-exhaust exercise before we go heavier for back work. In your case for a sculpting class I would say to use a bit heavier weight while doing this.

Hand Position for dumbbells: We did a deadlift with dumbbells positioned so that the thick ends faced sideways. After the deadlift we immediately went into the deadrow and for this we switched our hand grip position so that the thick ends of the dumbbells faced the front and back wall.

We also include a standing chest exercise (the only truly effective one that I know of) and that is to take a ball with some give and squeeze your hands together around this ball. Squeeze against the ball as hard as you can for about a minute. This will fire up the chest muscles.

Good luck!