Fitness with Friends: Seated Weights with Shirley Ryan AbilityLab

FEMALE VOICE: For more information and a full transcript of this video, check out fun4thedisabled.com. We hope you enjoy! When joining us for this video, you need to take some precautions as your health and safety are the most important. To avoid any injury or harm, you need to check your health with your doctor before exercising. By performing any fitness exercises without supervision like with this video, you are performing them at your own risk. See a fitness professional to give you advice on your exercise form. Strategy for Access Foundation NFP and Shirley Ryan Abilities Lab will not be responsible or liable for any injury or harm you sustain as a result of this video.

FITNESS TRAINER: Start sitting up tall with your arms at your sides. You’re gonna raise the weights out to your sides with your palms facing forward. Raise to shoulder height, and then lower back down. Try to keep your shoulders relaxed so you don’t shrug as you raise the weights. Remembering to breathe throughout. So breathing out as you raise, breathing in as you lower. Good, about halfway there. Nice work, don’t let those elbows bend. Give me two more. 

Hands off to your left side. Keeping your elbows locked, you’re gonna raise the weight diagonally across your body as if you are trying to throw it, rotating from the trunk, and return. Repeat that motion, making sure you’re rotating from the trunk, not from the arms. Breathing as you move. Good, about halfway there. Few more here. Good, keep those elbows locked out, don’t let them bend. Last two. Last one. Now let’s switch sides. So we’ll go down to the right, and then you’re gonna rotate up to the left and back down.

You’re gonna hold the weight out to the sides with palms facing forward, you’re gonna bend your elbows to bring your hands towards your shoulders. Return, and repeat. Try to avoid swinging the arms up and down and using momentum. Keep it a nice, controlled motion throughout. Breathing in and out. Good work, about halfway there. Remember to move through the entire range of motion, all the way up, all the way down every time. 

Palms facing forward, and as you breathe out, you’re gonna press the weight up towards the ceiling, making sure to keep your shoulders down. Return to start, leading with your elbows and not letting your hands fall forward. We’re gonna go back up, bringing it back down. Making sure to keep our posture. Press up. Good, back up. Remember to breathe throughout.

Hold the weights at your sides with straight arms. You’re gonna lean forward, keeping your back nice and flat, head and neck straight. Then you’re gonna pull your elbows up towards the ceiling, squeezing your shoulder blades together as you lift. Returning… we’re gonna go again. Raise it up, bring it back down, trying to keep those elbows nice and tight to your sides. Squeezing those shoulder blades as you lift and trying not to pick up your torso as you lift. Good, about halfway there, let’s keep it going. Good, give me two more here.

FITNESS TRAINER: Next exercise is called diagonal raises. You primarily should feel this exercise working towards the front and middle of the shoulder. We’ll start by reaching down and picking up our dumbbell. For this exercise, I’m using a dumbbell but feel free to use body weight, ankle weights, or any items that you find lying around the house such as a water bottle. We’ll start with our left hand out to the side with the dumbbell facing towards the ceiling. As we take a deep exhale, we’re gonna raise our arm about shoulder level. You don’t wanna go any higher than shoulder level because that’ll put unnecessary strain on the shoulders. Deep inhale as you lower the weight. We wanna make sure you’re taking a deep exhale as you raise the weight, deep inhale as you lower the weight, keeping your arm nice and straight, core tight. Nice upright posture, making sure there’s no rounding or hyperextending of the lower back. Last one. Alright, and then we’ll switch hands. Same thing, we’ll start with our right hand out to the side, dumbbell facing towards the ceiling. Raising the dumbbell at a slight angle in front of you. Inhale as you lower the weight, exhale as you raise the weight. Again, you should feel this exercise working towards the middle as well as the front of the shoulder. Last one. And relax. 

This exercise is called shoulder external rotators. You primarily should feel this exercise working towards the back of the shoulder. We’ll start by grabbing our band, wrapping the band around our hands. You can minimize or reduce the intensity of this exercise by the distance of the band. So if the distance– if you have more distance between your hands, the exercise is gonna be a little bit easier. But if you make the distance a little bit shorter, the exercise is gonna be more difficult. We’ll start by tucking in our elbows. With our left hand, we’re gonna rotate out as we tuck in the elbow. Inhale as you relax, exhale as you rotate the arm out. Making sure that you’re tucking in the elbow, not letting the elbow flare out. Halfway done. And make sure to exhale, inhale as you relax. Last one. And switch hands. Same thing as before, tucking in the right elbow as you rotate the right hand out. Exhale as you rotate, inhale as you relax. Last one. And relax. 

This exercise is called band pull aparts. You primarily should feel this exercise working towards the back of the shoulder. We’ll start by grabbing our band, wrapping it around our hands. Now for this exercise, you can reduce the intensity of the exercise by the width of the band between your hands. So if the band is a little bit longer, the exercise is gonna be easier whereas with the shorter width, the exercise is gonna be a little bit more difficult. Keeping our arms straight in front of us around shoulder level, keeping the core nice and tight, tall posture. We’re gonna pull our hands out to the side, keeping the band around the middle of our chest, making sure that the band does not fly around towards our neck. Keeping the hands about shoulder level, relax. Exhale as you pull, deep inhale as you relax. Making sure that you’re keeping the hands and arms nice and straight, core nice and tight. As you pull the band apart, really focus on squeezing the shoulder blades. Making sure that you’re exhaling as you pull, inhaling as you relax. Last one. And relax. 

Next exercise is called a row. This exercise will primarily work the muscles in your upper back as well as in the back of the shoulder. We’ll start by grabbing our band. Now for this exercise, I’m gonna use my foot as an anchor, but as an alternative, you can also wrap the band around the leg of a table or a chair. We’ll place our foot right in the middle, center of the ground so that way we’re not overworking one part of the body compared to the rest. And as you do this exercise, you wanna make sure that you’re keeping your core nice and tight so there’s no rounding of your lower back, as well as keeping your neck and head aligned with your torso. Keeping the leg nice and straight, focus on pulling towards your midline of your body, inhaling as you relax, exhaling as you pull through the elbows, squeezing your shoulder blades, keeping the core nice and tight. Inhaling as you relax. Really keep in mind that you’re keeping your neck and head aligned with your torso. Really focus on squeezing those shoulder blades. Last one. And relax. 

FITNESS TRAINER : …sides with straight arms. You’re gonna lean forward, keeping your back nice and flat, your head and neck straight. You’re gonna lift your arms out to your sides as if you were a bird, and bring them back down. You’re gonna go back up, try to keep your elbows locked, squeezing those shoulder blades together as you lift. Remembering to breathe. Good work, try not to pick your torso up as you lift. A few more here. 

You’re gonna scoot forward as far as you can in your chair safely, making sure you’re in a sturdy chair or leaning up against something that’s sturdy. You’re gonna lean back. If you want a little bit of a core workout, you can always just lean back without leaning on anything. You’re gonna bring your hands to your chest, palms facing forward. Then as you breathe out, you’re gonna press the dumbbells towards the ceiling. Bring it back, good, and then press up again. Good, making sure that we’re not letting the hands fall, that it’s a nice straight line up and down. Good, remembering to breathe throughout the motion. Few more here. 

…your sides. You’re gonna raise the weight in front of you at about 45 degrees out to shoulder height with your palms facing each other. We’re gonna lower back down, keeping those shoulders relaxed, we’re gonna go up and down, trying to keep that same position throughout. Remember to breathe, so breathing out as you raise, breathing in as you lower. Good, about halfway there. Nice job, try to keep those elbows straight, don’t let them bend.