Elbows Back

Muscles worked

The muscle under tension is the pectoralis major, which drives the upper arm forward and across the body.

A stretch loads it at the far end of the range it normally works in, so the position you hold is itself the resistance.

Nothing travels, but holding the position is not the target muscle’s job alone: the deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range.

Every exercise for:ChestShoulders

How this movement works

You get into position and hold. One joint sets the angle and one muscle group takes the tension, so the load stays exactly where you put it. Hold for time, breathe normally, and come out the moment the position drifts: a shape that has quietly shifted is no longer training what you set it up to train.

It is filed under stretching, so the target is range of motion rather than force — a position you can settle into and breathe in, held long enough for the tissue to give.

What you need

These train the chest too, using equipment this one does not:

• Extended Range One-Arm Kettlebell Floor Presskettlebell
• Flat Bench Cable Flyescable
• Flat Bench Cable Flysbench + cable
• Hammer Grip Incline Bench Pressdumbbell + bench
• Incline Bench Press with Bandsband + bench

Difficulty

Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.

Of the 105 chest exercises in this database, 63 are listed at beginner level.