RealJock Staff

This exercise provided courtesy of Billy Polson, founder and co-owner of DIAKADI Body training gym, voted best personal training gym in San Francisco by CitySearch in 2006.

Benefits
Talk about versatile! We love the Smith machine for the many exercises you can do on it. One such exercise is the Smith machine inverted pull-up. This simple variation on the pull-up works the back muscles—the lats and traps specifically.

Muscles Worked
Back (lats and traps)

Starting Position
Set the Smith machine bar so that it is on the fourth, fifth, or sixth height setting (the bar height will be below your chest height and above your belly button), depending on your individual height relative to the Smith machine. With your feet on the floor in a wide stance in front of the Smith machine, position your upper body underneath the bar of the Smith machine, holding the bar a little wider than shoulder-width apart with your palms facing down. Hang from the bar with your arms extended fully, and allow only the heels of your feet to touch the floor. Keep your body straight—don't let your butt sag down) (see Photo 1).

Exercise

1. From the starting position, lift your upper body up until your chest touches the bar (see Photo 2). Focus on retracting your shoulder blades down and back and opening up your chest in order to maintain proper posture and to activate your lower/middle traps.
2. Reverse the motion and lower yourself down until you are back at the starting position (see Photo 3).

About Billy Polson: Billy Polson is the founder and co-owner of DIAKADI Body training gym, which was voted the best personal training gym in San Francisco by CitySearch in 2006. A competitive swimmer and triathlete in his own right, Polson has over 15 years of experience working as a coach and trainer, and was recently named by Men's Journal Magazine (December 2005) as one of the Top 100 Trainers in America.

NCMtnMan wrote:

It simply uses the same muscles in a different way sort of like Isometric VS Isotonic.

Most people think they "push" a wheel barrow, but in reality they "pull" it because the arms are behind the shoulder. Think about it - You are pulling the wheel barrow with your shoulders instead of pushing it with your arms. You want a good workout - trying "PUSHING" the same weight in a wheel barrow as you can "PULL" it.

Isometric exercise is a form of exercise involving the static contraction of a muscle without any visible movement in the angle of the joint. This is reflected in the name; the term "isometric" combines the prefix "iso" (same) with "metric" (distance), meaning that in these exercises the length of the muscle does not change, as compared to isotonic contractions ("tonus" means "strain" in Latin) in which the contraction strength does not change but the joint angle does.

Mar 26 9:11 PM

Mattnatl wrote:

What benefit does this provide over a normal pushup?

Jul 28 12:05 AM