Rader Chest Pull

Rader Chest Pull

Main structure

rib cageThis exercise was developed by Peary Rader. Teenagers

and trainees in their early twenties should use

itor the breathing pullover, see page 29for

rib cage enlargement. Older trainees may benefit

too, though probably to a lesser degree.

Stand at about arms length from a vertical bar,

with your feet hip-width apart. Alternatively you

could use a sturdy and stable object that can be

grasped at a little above head height. An upright on

a power rack, or a door jamb, will do the job. Grab it

at about head height, with straight arms. If you use

an upright of a power rack, or a vertical bar, keep

your hands together. If you use another object, keep

your hands close together.

Keeping your arms straight, take a deep breath

and, at the same time, pull down and in with your

arms. Do not contract your abdominal muscles.

Keep them relaxed. If you tense your abdominal

muscles this will flatten your chest and defeat the

purpose of the exercise. Done correctly, the exercise

will raise your chest and produce a pull and slight

discomfort in your sternum. If you do not feel this,

you are not doing the exercise properly.

You may get a better effect if you bend your

arms slightly, because this will let you pull harder.

The harder you pull, the better the effect on your rib

cage, so long as you are pulling in the right way.

Rader recommended that you tense the muscles

at the front of your neck and then pull your head

39

back. This should be done at the same time as you

pull down and in with your arms. This neck involvement

will provide further stretching and lifting of

your rib cage. But do not apply this tip until after

you have learned how to apply all the other instruction.

Once you get to grips with it you will feel a considerable

stretching effect in your rib cage. It may,

however, take a while to get the exercise right. You

may have to fine-tune the precise height you place

your hands, the spacing between your hands, the

distance between your feet and the base of the object

you hold, and the angle of pull that you use.

Persist until you get the exercise right.

Hold your breath for as long as comfortable, and

throughout the entire time you should be able to

feel the pull and slight discomfort in your sternum.

Do not, however, hold your breath until you are almost

ready to burst, because you need to be able

to perform up to 20 reps for a single set. How long

you can comfortably hold your breath will depend

on the state of your breathing prior to performing

the chest pull (primarily whether or not you squatted

prior to the chest pulls), and your general conditioning.

With practice, over time, you will be able

to hold each pull for a longer time, for a comparable

level of discomfort. Somewhere in the range of 46

seconds per pull will be fine.

You can perform the Rader chest pull after an exercise

that gets you heavily winded, or when you are

not winded. As noted in the section on the breathing

pullover, rib cage work can be done much more

frequently than other weight-training exercises. It is

not high-intensity systemically-demanding work.

Go easy to begin with, especially if you are not

doing the Rader chest pull when winded from

a heavy leg exercise. The forced and exaggerated

breathing may make you feel dizzy unless you work

into it over a period of a few weeks. Your chest may

get very sore, too, if you do not work into the exercise

gradually. Exercise caution and good sense.

RADER CHEST PULL