Below is a video of dynamic bench pressing with chains.
Power = Strength + Speed.
Dynamic exercises are geared to increase the speed of the movement. They should be done submaximally with Bands or Chains. The bands and chains provide accommodating resistance, so the movement gets tougher as you perform the lift.
I prefer chains over bands, but either can be used. Attempt to perform the lift as fast as possible on the way up.
A fun mixup to enjoy the nice weather down here in Florida.
Wheeling in grass can be a great exercise. Even better if you have any sort of incline. And if you want to take it a step further, try wheeling in and out of shallow ditches like the video below!
One of the most overlooked aspects of working out from a wheelchair is the problem of actually loading free weight onto the bar. This can be a mini workout in itself and if you are not careful, can be more likely to cause injury than actually lifting!
Below is a video of me loading a 45lb plate onto the bar for some heavy incline bench presses.
There are a few things to keep in mind when loading a barbell.
If going with heavy plates, 45lb, 35lb, or 25lb. (whatever is heavy for YOU) Do not set the bar above shoulder width.
Exercises such as Overhead Press or Military Presses will have the bar at a starting point that is higher, use a lighter plate. In my case I load 45s with the bar at shoulder height, but use 35s and 25s when the bar is above my eye level.
Pull the weight from the floor to your lap, reset, then lift the plate up and thread the needle as you see in the video.
If possible, use plates with handle cutouts like you see in the video.
If you have the balance and a lower injury level use two hands. But if you have a higher injury like me, you will need to load with 1 arm.
Here is a video of another fairly new exercise for me.
And this is a PR at 50lbs. This movement has A LOT of room for improvement, but getting better at new things is a HUGE part of the journey!
In this exercise demonstration I am showing a wheelchair variation of snatch grip high pulls.
This is done with 1 arm at a time, with a barbell lying on the ground.
In this specific video I am using lighter weight with the goal of improving speed as well as pulling the bar up to shoulder height.
This exercise will:
Build Muscle in the Traps and Upper Back. It is so much more effective than shrugs.
Improve your ability for snatches and clean and jerk movements.
Improves speed and explosion
In this video I am doing my preferred version of rows for wheelers. I like to lay face down on a low incline bench, allowing me to brace myself with the other arm. If you have a bench with the space, you can do these with two arms with a barbell. I am not able to do that on this bench.
Another problem with using a barbell in this manner is the range of motion. With 1 arm you can get a very good stretch at the bottom as well as pull up higher for a better contraction.
After pull up variations this is BY FAR the best back exercise for wheelers in my opinion.
Muscles Worked
Back
Biceps
Forearms and Grip
Below is a video of Kettlebell snatches. These are a great exercise for a wheeler version of a full body exercise.
Kettlebells are awesome and extremely flexible. Works the traps, shoulders, grip and endurance directly but your grip will get some work as well as your biceps and triceps work to control and stabilize the kettlebell.
Initiate the movement with a slight swing of the kettlebell, the pull up through the shoulder and flip the kettlebell around your hand at the top. You will NOT have to go very heavy on these. Fatigue will set in after only a few reps.
Another exercise that is fairly new to me, as well as being something that is ideal for an At Home workout is the medball situp.
Great for the Core and Abs. Also a solid conditioning exercise for wheelers as you are working a ton of body parts in a repetitive manner. Amazing for any kind of MetCon workout. If you don’t have a medball, a dumbell can be substituted or a kettlebell or even a backpack loaded with some books for weight.
A new exercise for me is Kettlebell deadlifts. Due to my injury level I didn’t think this was even a realistic exercise for me but I am on my way.
For now I have to use bands to help lift my body up. Moving the actual weight is not an issue, in the video I am using 35lb kettlebells. I expect this to rapidly increase over time.
For us wheelers this is primary a shoulder exercise. Start the movement with a shrug movement with your traps and pull back the weight with your upper back. To finish off the movement your lower back will raise up your body to the vertical position. For now this is the part where I will need the band, but hopefully this will not always be the case.
This is a great exercise and something new for me which always keeps training fresh, challenging and fun.
Here is a video of me doing dynamic Chest to Bar Pull Ups.
Muscles Worked:
Back, specifically the Lats
Biceps
Forearms and Grip
An exercise that is quickly becoming my favorite is Ring Dips. These are so much more difficult than doing dips from parallel bars, which I have been doing for years. With Ring Dips there is no cheating, you get no momentum boost like you do on the bars. You must lower yourself slowly and under control. At the bottom you need to pause to keep your body in proper alignment which eliminates the rubber band effect of momentum. With bar dips you can fly up and down and begin to lose a little of the magic that dips can provide. That all comes back with Ring Dips.
Benefits of Ring Dips
Adds variety to your program.
Engages the core more than bar dips.
Eliminates momentum from doing the work.
Engages muscles all over the upper body.
The best comparison I can give is if you have ever done a bench press, incline press or military press from a Smith Machine. Compare doing the exact same weight from a smith machine and then do it from a completely free weight barbell press. Those movements are completely different animals. With the smith machine you really only need to focus on just pushing up the weight with as much force as possible. But with the barbell, you must also balance the bar and pay attention to a bunch of different things throughout the movement. Same thing when comparing Ring Dips with Parallel Bar Dips as you have so much more to focus on with Ring Dips to perform the movement.
In this video I am adding some weight via chains.
Here is a video from Instagram of me doing a Close Grip Bench Press.
Amazing for the Triceps and Chest. You do NOT need to go any more narrow than Shoulder WIdth. Way too many people go WAY too close with their hands. This doesn’t engage the triceps and better, it only hurts your wrists.
I am doing 3 sets at 235lbs. With Double Progression, when I hit my total rep goal, I add weight the next time.
With any bench press movement, close grip or incline, I typically do warmup sets at 135, then go right into my work sets. All the work sets will be at the same weight as I am not going to waste valuable time transferring on and off the bench between every set to change plates. Its a waste of time and eats up our most productive lifting window.
Military presses are my preferred exercise for the shoulders. Overhead pressing was once a benchmark of upper body strength but now days too few of trainees do them. They have gotten a bad rap in the training community which I find to be a lot of BS. If you have chronic shoulder problems it may be wise to avoid them, just as it would be wise to avoid almost any pressing movement. If you have occassional shoulder soreness, is wiser to figure out what is hurting your shoulders. It is quite possible some other exercise you perform is actually the culprit as the shoulder is incredible complex. In my case I was irritating my shoulders via incline curls. The stretch was great for the biceps but terrible for my shoulders. I have now permanently removed that exercise and experience 0 shoulder issues.
Back to this exercise. In the video I am performing military presses from a slight incline as this helps me stay a bit more stable. This is also among the only exercises I recommend performing on a Smith Machine as the bar is meant to go straight up and down which is all you can do on the smith. I use a strap across my chest to further secure my body while I perform the movement. I am also using chains for a more dynamic feel which will help with explosion.
Note: Chains are fairly advanced and not something beginners or even intermediate lifters need to bother with.
If your bench press has stagnated military presses will help you get over a sticking point. Getting a bunch of weight from the ground to over your head is a primary feat of strength. Building up your overhead press is a big part of that. If you are use to benching, but have not actually performed military presses with a barbell, you will likely be humbled depending on your shoulder strength. Start light until you get the movement down, then over time your strength on these will increase very quickly.
Here is a video of me demonstrating how a wheelchair trainee can perform pull ups.
Included in Video:
There exists some basic criteria that we as wheelchair lifters must focus on. These should be our primary heavy movements that most of our focus on Progression via added weight or reps should apply to. These criteria are as follows:
Heavy
Every set does not have to be an attempt to break a world record, or a personal record. But for an exercise to be highly beneficial to the wheelchair lifter it must be something that you can continually progress on via the Double Progression Method. It must be an exercise you can go balls to the wall on in a max effort set, a dynamic set or a high rep set.
Safe and Stable
To meet the above criteria the exercise must have the lifter in a stable position, where you are locked in and are not concerned with bracing yourself. The lifter should not have to spend a lot of energy bracing themselves, or more importantly not falling out of their wheelchair or tumbling the entire chair over. If on a bench or machine we must feel fairly safe performing the lift as it becomes extremely difficult to focus on a lift if we are wobbling all over the place. We can enhance this security via straps to lock down our legs or across our lower chest to help lock us in.
Low Maintenance
This really applies to answering this question, "can I do this exercise without the help from someone else." This applies to getting in position to do the lift as well as adding the weight. It may be no problem getting on a machine and setup for a specific lift, but if we cannot safely load the weight on for the lift that is obviously a problem. This specific criteria item applies more to my situation as I most often lift alone, but may be less of an issue for others. If you are always lifting with a partner where you have assistance loading the weight on than half of this problem goes away.
Even if you do lift with a partner I highly recommend NOT depending on that partner to help stabilize you as you lift. When lifting on any lift you must have a consistent platform from where to exert the power, speed and energy to execute the lift. This stabilization should not be coming from another person in most situations.
Below is an index of different options for a wheelchair lifter. Again, this is mostly focusing on free weight variations as a majority of wheelchair users, who can perform basic transfers, can use most of the upper body pulley-based machines. This is a focus on the free weight options broken down by body part. Over time I will try to add in videos and/or pictures of how I do the specific exercise from setting up, stabilizing myself and then actually executing the lift.
For shoulders I prefer pressing as the main exercise. From the Wheelchair you will have to get a bit creative on how you do a free weight Military Press. I actually use an adjustable Incline bench and put it on a setting over 45 degrees, but well under a straight 90 degrees. At 90 degrees we have almost no balance. When starting out with the military press it may be wise to utilize the Smith Machine at your gym, as this is one of the only exercises I would ever recommend Wheelchair users to touch that piece of junk. For the military press, it can work quite well.
Shrugs are almost always the only exercise people do for their traps, and it does hit the traps well enough but people too often use crappy form and too much weight. With this combination the lifter gets almost no benefit over time. For both of the exercises listed I prefer to place a Barbell on the floor with one end up against the wall with NO WEIGHT, and I actually pull up by grabbing the collar from the other end and add weight to that end. (I will add pics!)
I love the 1 arm snatch, it acts as a quick and explosive movement where you lift the weighted end of the barbell from the floor up to your armpit. Ive received incredible results over the years once I introduced this exercise.
Chest is among the easiest exercise for us wheelchair lifters to get started with as simple pushups from the floor or even on a bed will be beneficial, but as you get stronger you will want more of a challenge. I again prefer any bar pressing as the main lift, although dips are incredible and there are several ways you can do Dips in a gym. ANd almost none of them involve using the actual dip mechanism in a typical gym as the handles are often WAY too high. For dips in a gym for wheelchair users find the Glute Ham machine that people often are doing back extensions from. Something like this, as the handles can be moved up and down and we can do these straight from the chair by wheeling up to the handles.
Back can be broken into Vertical Pulling and Horizontal Pulling. The back is among the most important areas to work out yet way too many people neglect the back. And as important as the back is to hit it does not require a crazy variety. Do pullups and rows and you are good. The back responds well to heavy work, especially on the rows so sticking to a 5-8 rep count per set is ideal. For Pullups you can use a squat rack and place the bar high (you may need help on this), and you can also use a smith machine and again place the bar high. For rows the best bang for your buck for us wheelchair lifters will be a plate loaded row machine. One issue with a lot of these types of machines in a gym, however, is the area where you load the plates may be too high. Because of this I often do 1 arm rows while laying face down on an incline bench set at a low incline. This keeps me well balanced and plenty of leverage to go heavy.
Most lifters already spend way too much time on Bis and Tris, or at least the Bis. For Biceps I prefer any bar type curl, my favorite is from the Preacher Curl Machine. Then add in any dumbell or cable curl variation that you prefer. For Triceps the Close Grip Bench Press is KING! This allows you to go quite heavy, then finish up with the Universal Tricep exercise, the cable pushdown. Way too many Bro's at the gym go straight to the cable machine for a workout and they are pretty much wasting their time. Hit the body with heavy stuff like the Close Grip Bench, then goto the cables. Going heavy on the cables is pointless and will just injure your elbows over time.
BIceps
Triceps
I am adding in a new category for Complex Lifts. These are lifts that are olympic variations for us wheelchair lifters. Just like olympic lifts these do not focus on a single body part and go above a compound lift such as the Bench Press and Pullup by hitting more than two bodyparts. Start light with these exercises until the form becomes solid.
Within this area I will be posting information about exercises that I believe can work great for the wheelchair lifter. I will mostly focus on variations of free weight, compound exercises that hit multiple muscle groups. All of these exercises will also be ones that a wheelchair person can do completely independently while they perform the actual lift, as well as the setup. Very often I lift alone so I have spent A LOT of years seeking variations and methods that allow me to lift A LOT of weight, safely.
Some very high level basics on my lifting philosophy and exercise selection.