How To Stretch Before Doing Chest Exercises Video

Prep your chest muscles for a workout. Learn exercises and stretches for your workout routine in this fitness video.

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Use a pole, punching bag, or handle
Lean away from arm as you stretch
Fully straighten arm as stretch increases
Use light weights to aid stretching
Get used to stretching before exercising

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Tom Clifford has a degree in physical education, fitness and health from Eastern Michigan University, where he ran track and cross-country. Tom has worked as a personal trainer for two years. He also has a separate business where he coaches runners and triathletes for upcoming events. He currently works at Gold's Gym in Wilmington, North Carolina.

TOM CLIFFORD: Now I'm going to demonstrate to you how to stretch before doing chest exercises. The stretches I'm going to do beforehand are similar to the chest complex stretch or how to stretch the chest. We're going to start out putting our arm at 90 degrees, forearm on a stretching device such as a punching bag or a pole in the gym and leaning out away from your arm, okay, holding for 15 to 30 seconds. Then you're going to extend your elbow, not fully extend but extend your elbow just a little bit, putting your hand on a stretching device and leaning out away from your arm again, alright? You're going to feel a little bit more of a stretch in your chest. And then you're going to put your fingers on the device and straighten out your elbow fully and turn as sharp as you can away from your hand, alright? You see how far away my body is away from my hand now, from where I started. After you've done that with both sides, for about 15 to 30 seconds, you can lie down on the bench if you're doing a bench press or dumbbell presses with a real light weight. I'm using a 10 pound barbell here. And I'm going to lie down with the barbell above. This is really light for me so it's not going to be much resistance at all. It shouldn't be difficult. If this is heavy for you, 10 pounds then you could use a 5 pound barbell, whatever works for you. Bring it down and hold, okay? And just hold for about 15 to 30 seconds, you'll feel a real good stretch in your chest, alright. And when you're done doing that, you can do it a couple more times, a little bit faster, just to warm your chest up for the exercise that you're about to perform. The stretches that you're going to do could--if you're a beginner weightlifter, they can make you sore, alright? So getting used to stretching before you perform exercises is really, really good. It opens up the chest and it's going to expand your muscles more so you can build your muscle a lot better. So points to remember is before you actually do the exercise that you're going to perform, stretch the chest out, doing the chest complex stretch with the elbow bent and outside and then fully extended and then get down into the exercises you're about to perform and use light weights to perform that exercise before you actually move the weight up to do the exercise. That's how you perform exercises before doing chest.

How to Stretch Before Doing Chest Exercises Video

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