I met with my trainer today to go over all of the exercises I've been doing and to fine-tune the forms. It turns out I've been doing most of them not quite as optimally as I could, which doesn't mean that I haven't been seeing results, but it does mean that I've been putting more strain on my shoulders, elbows, and back that I should.
I'm also convinced that when I was getting instructed on these the first time, the head cold I had messed up by ability to remember all the forms.
One point of all these exercises is that they are "super-sets", meaning I should do a set of A) (say, presses), rest 10 seconds, then do a set of B) (say rows), rest, and then repeat two more times. They're supposed to compliment each other by alternately compressing and stretching the same muscle sets. I'd been doing them consecutively, which defeated the purpose.
A) 3x12x20lbs dumbbell presses
I'm mostly doing this one right. I need to keep the dumbbells over my pectorals and at shoulder-width. The idea is to go straight up and push with my pectorals and not my shoulders.
B) 3x12x20lbs dumbbell rows
I need to keep my feet closer together, keep my bent knees behind my toes, flex my quads and not my back, then let the dumbells hang straight down from my shoulders, and row up with the dumbbells following the slope of my legs. My forearms and quads should be parallel, as should my trunk and shins -- and to get that position I need to "lead from my butt."
A) 3x12x45lbs barbell press
I was mostly doing this right; again the barbell needs to be even with my pectorals so on the contraction there's a bit of a stretch and the press is coming from my pectorals and not my shoulders.
B) 3x12x45lbs barbell row
Mostly right. Good form has the bar starting touching just above my knees and then pulling up and back in a straight line to touch the navel. Engage the quads, not the lower back (or shoulders). Make sure the elbows at the top of the row are bent so that they point across the middle of the back (not the top of the shoulders).
A) 3x12x15lbs low cable fly
I had been performing this too high, like it was a press. I need to grip the pulls to engage the forearms (I'd been hooking them in open hands between my thumbs and index finger). The push should come (you guessed it) from my lower pectoral muscles, not my triceps. Start with elbows bent, then end with hands low in a sort of Arnold flexing pose.
B) 3x12x5lbs low back cable fly
I was totally messing this one up. The grip should be squeezing the ropes above the pulls, my elbows should be bent in a frozen position. The cables should cross at head level. Instead of straightening my arms, which turns this into a triceps/shoulder stressor (oops), I should be stretching my chest open and energizing my lower trapezius muscle group.
3x12x10lbs cable twist
I'd just started doing this one, and my form was pretty good; keeping a wider stance than I had been will insure that I'm twisting my trunk (and activating my core) not twisting my hips and knees.
A) 3x12x25lbs barbell inline overhead triceps extension
This one was throwing me because the grip on the barbell always felt wrong. My hands should be about as far apart when my extended thumb tips are touching (or to put it another way, if my hands are naturally falling palms out with relaxed arms, rolling my hands inward should bring them the same, naturally relaxed distance). Lean forward in the incline bench in a demi-crunch, the barbell behind the head and between the bench, push up and a little back (not directly over head or chest) to keep the triceps engaged.
B) 3x12x25lbs barbell incline hanging bicep curl
One form that I was actually mostly doing correctly. Remember to keep biceps engaged (don't "rest" weights at the top of the curl).
A) 3x12x30lbs rope triceps extension
Oh my god, doing this the right way is going to kill me. Mostly, it's about bending forward (engaging the core) so the weights don't come back down on their stack, keeping my elbows in position near my ears, then straightening my arms so that the rope-pull travels in a straight line (not a curve) which is an extension of the cable's vector. And not flexing my wrists. I should be thinking of the motion as a pushing forward with my hands and not as a rotation around my elbows.
B) 3x12x20lbs overhead rope bicep curl
Another form that I was doing with elbows too low and too far leaned back. So... sit on the bench, raise the arms and grab the rope pull in a reverse hold with thumbs facing my face, lean back a little to raise weights off of their stack, bend elbow (keeping it near my ears), pull rope pull behind my head, focus on activating the top part (elbow half) of my biceps.
So there it is. Now I have to figure out a metric...
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