Introducing The Total Gym Press-Up Bar!

Hey Total Gym Team,

I hope you’re all having a fabulous summer! Today, we’re going to focus on one of the many cool accessories you can purchase for your Total Gym Fit, XLS or Flex – The Press-Up Bar I’m going to give you three great reasons you’ll love the Press-Up Bar and several of my favorite exercises you can plug into your resistance training routine. Make sure you view the video to check them out.

As a person who makes a living training people in wellness and physical fitness, my favorite thing about the Total Gym is its versatility. Versatility is the same reason I love to train on my Total Gym. I could train my clients for a year on this machine and give them a different workout each time.

As versatile as the base machine is, when you start to add accessories, the fun really kicks in. One of my favorite sayings is, “To keep your muscles progressing, you have to keep them guessing!” What does this mean? If you continue to do the same exercises and routines, your muscles will adapt and you will get diminishing returns on your time working out. You have to mix it up and change your workouts periodically to keep those muscles guessing, thus progressing.

One way I know it’s time to change it up is if I (or my client) am not a little sore the next day. I’m not talking about being so sore you struggle to brush your teeth, but a little “heightened awareness” in the muscle groups you worked. This tells you your body is alive and responding to the positive stresses you are giving it during your workouts.

3 Great Exercises You Can Do With The Total Gym Press-Up Bar

Here are three great reasons to buy and use the Press-Up Bar:

1. Press-Ups and Pull-Ups:

Back to that versatility concept, the Press-Up Bar can be used in two different modalities to work dozens of different muscle groups. The Press-Up exercises, from the bottom of your Total Gym, are great for all the muscles of your shoulders and triceps. By moving the bar toward the top of your rails, it becomes a Pull-Up Bar. From here we can do pull-ups and chin-ups (I’ll point out the differences in the video), which will focus primarily on all the muscles of the back and biceps. What a great toy to expand your upper body workouts!

1. Single Arm Press-Ups and Pull-Ups:

We all tend to be “one-sided” or stronger on our dominant side. When you work with traditional, bilateral machines, this muscle imbalance tends to exacerbate, as when you fatigue your stronger side will do more of the work. Working unilaterally (one side at a time) will balance you out and make your body more efficient.

1. Upper Body Plyometrics:

When most of us think about plyometrics, we think about jumping with our legs, with strong, quick, explosive movements that train legs in a powerful way. With the Press-Up / Pull-Up Bar, we can do plyometric movements with our shoulder presses and lats (back muscles) in a dynamic fashion. Definitely keeping those muscles guessing and progressing!

So check out the video for some fun, new exercises for your upper body resistance training workout. Then order your Press-Up Bar today!

Thanks Team!