ribcage pullover question

[susan p2]

Hi ladies! I need assistance from the educated crowd for a moment. Yesterday I was doing Keli Robert's New Body Bar Workout with my 15 lb bodybar. She does a set of ribcage pullovers, I hope I'm calling them the right name, where you lay on your back on the step and lower the bar with straight arms (not locked elbows of course)over your head, then pull it back up until it is over your chest. Anyway, I know this exercise is supposed to work the lats, but I just do NOT feel it there. . . I am keeping my back in place, I can feel all my torso muscles gripping to keep me from moving, but I feel the WORK itself in my triceps. To the max, I might add. . . A definite YOWZA to the triceps! I'm wondering if this is a form issue somehow, or if my lats are just so much stronger than my triceps that I feel the triceps without ever feeling the lats? Or is there some sort of way that I'm supposed to be pulling with my lats instead of my triceps? Thanks for any clues!

susan p

 

[competition bound]

Hi Susan!! Are you moving from the shoulder joint? That's the only thing I can think of that you might not be doing. The elbows aren't supposed to move at all. Just rotate the shoulders back to bring the bar in the behind your head and the step then rotate your shoulders forward to bring the bar back above the chest. Keep your elbows in that fixed posistion at all times!! Don't bend and straighten them at all!! Just keep them slightly bent and let the shoulders do the movement and as you come back toward the chest really focus on the lat muscles pulling your shoulders forward. Well, I hope this helps!! Good Luck!!


Aimee

 

[susan p2]

Thanks for the hint. Actually I am careful to rotate from the shoulders and keep my elbows locked (not locked out as in straight, but you know, FIXED in position, with just a slight bend). I feel the whole movement down the FRONT of me more than the back, I feel my abs lock in and my ribcage tighten up, and the work goes up my tricep. . . where's the BACK of me during all this??

You know, I always have had trouble "getting in touch with my lats" (LOL!). It took me forever to learn to pull with my lats during lat rows, little form changes (like keeping my thumbs alongside my fingers rather than on the other side of the dumbbell's bar) helped, but ultimately I just had to learn to feel it and learn to pull from a different place. Maybe with ribcage pullovers I just haven't had that eureka moment about how to pull with my back instead of my arms. Maybe my lats and I should get into some counselling to learn how to communicate more effectively with one another.