Bow and arrow, beginner Strength.
So with your bow and arrow you're going to need your Theraband and I encourage you to
refer to your exercise safety tips as to how to place it around your wrist, so that you're
not having to strain the little joints in your fingers.
And once it's there, you may want to actually double and triple it around your hand and
wrist.
Because unlike the reverse fly, where you have a really long lever, with the bow and
arrow, it's a smaller lever.
And so you're only going to need to have about 12 inches of Theraband between your hands.
Okay, next you're going to stand with your feet shoulder width apart, or hip width apart,
and about four to six inches from the wall.
Then rest your buttocks up against the wall.
You're going to always have a little bit of space, the space that your hand would fit
into in the small of your back.
And then you want to get your best posture alignment up against the wall.
So if you, in your very best alignment, can get your head an inch, or a half an inch,
from the wall, that's where you want to keep it.
And sometimes using a little cork wedge is what I like to use, if that helps you, or
a folded towel or a little face cloth, I should say.
If you need to place that to encourage you to hold that best alignment, then I encourage
you to do so.
That way when you're doing your bow and arrow, if you have tendency of letting your head
come forward, it will help you correct that.
Now in this position, arms down by your side, I'm going to raise my arms so my thumbs are
facing one another.
So breath in.
My left arm is going to be my anchor, and I'm going to pull back with the right.
So my elbow is coming back, my hand is coming right in front of my shoulder, I return to
start position and down.
I'm going to alternate sides.
So breath in, squeezing my shoulder blade back as I bring my elbow out and back to meet
my other hand, and down again.
Now, a couple of points here.
As I raise my arm up, my anchoring arm, I don't want to totally lock it so I have a
little bend.
Now as I bring my hand back, I don't want to see the elbow up higher than the shoulder
because that's going to cause some impingement and potential pain in the shoulder.
So the elbow is always slightly below the height of the shoulder and the hand's right
in front of the shoulder.
The other thing I see a lot of people that have weak wrists doing is a lot of bending
or extending of the wrist.
So ideally you want to keep your wrists in a nice straight line with your forearm.
So let's start again, keeping long through the back of your neck.
Just a hand's width space in your back.
Take your breath in.
As the arms come up, exhale and pull back.
As you're pulling back really focus on the shoulder blade being squeezed toward your
spine.
Come back and down.
One more time, opposite side.
Shoulder blade pulls in toward your spine as your hand comes in front of the shoulder
and back down.
And I'm just going to do it without talking, so you can see the pace of it.
And that's the bow and arrow against the wall.