Lion-Ox Exercise of the Month-April

[lovelace]

Video of exercise below:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=59KHJLd-9Kw

Exercise of the Month

“LION-OX”

This is a combo exercise that a few gym members and myself started. This was a culmination of three of us putting our input into it.

Key area’s worked are front delts, rear delts, upper lats and rotator cuffs.
It started with an e-z curl bar.
You lie flat on a bench; start out with real light weight.... a five or ten on each side. Hold the bar straight over your eyes (like you were going to do reps or skull crushers), keeping the elbows just slightly bent,lower the weight towards your knees...this is a front raise.
You raise it back up and over your head towards the floor..be careful not to go back too far...this hits the rear delts rotator cuffs and even your upper lats. You should try to bring back so that you are parallel with your legs...one straight line. Sort of looks like a dumbbell pull over..except using an ez curl bar.
The other way to do this is using db’s....again real light at first...10 or 15 lbs...then work your way up. You have a better range of motion using db’s. I am flexible enough now that I can touch the floor going towards the knees and can almost touch the floor behind my head. Again , be very careful with these and use light weight at first. One of the first times I used a db, my right shoulder gave way on one of my last reps and I had to drop the db. If not, I would have destroyed that shoulder. I would recommend doing these 2-4 times a week after benching or squatting.
I am a firm believer in these now! I am getting stronger in my front delts, rear delts and rotator cuffs. Most importantly it has given me the flexibility to now move my squat grip into where the rings are located. Can you believe that? I use to have my hands at the very end...in fact.....I was red lighted in a contest for my hands being up on the plates!
Hope this helps! A lot of people are finding this exercise very helpful in relieving shoulder pain.
Video of exercise below:
God Bless, Luke 15:3
Mike

[pitbull]

Never heard of this before. Thanks for the post.

[stevefredine]

Mike, I tried this one my last 2 workoust and have come to have a deep love/hate relationship with it. I hate doing them nut love how my shoulders feel after. I'm really immobile in my shoulders plus I've had some scar tissue build up. This exercise REALLY stretches things out.

You are very right on telling people to go light. I found 15 lb dumbells for stretching/flexibility are about all I want to deal with right now.

How did the exercise get it's name?

[lovelace]

Hey man, glad you love them, hate them...LOL

This started out with Chris "ox" Mason, doing them with a ez curl bar going from the legs to straight over his head. Then I added going back over your face and behind you towards the floor...then Travis Mash tried them using db's. So we all added something. Since Chris and I had the motion in place, we already named them Lion-Ox. My nickname by some is "young lion", so we called them lion-ox. Some call them lying ox, do to the position of the exercise.

God Bless, Mike

[willbrothers]

I like them. You get a good stretch when the bar comes back behind your head. I like it after bench because it seems to loosen me up so I can do other things, plus I can tell it's a strength builder.