Trained By Ash, Hamilton Videos

Bench press tips! 💪🏽 As mentioned on the vid, there are multiple ways to bench press safely and effectively so what that looks like for me may differ for you. However these foundational techniques will set most people up for a successful lift! 1- Dig your feet into the ground engaging your glutes. I dig my heels down although some people use the balls of their feet. Either is fine but you want to be able to drive through your legs! This will help drastically with power and stability. 2- Tuck your shoulder blades under and puff up your chest. This may look uncomfortable but it actually puts your shoulders in a much safer position as they won’t roll forward. Puffing the chest also lessens the range of motion allowing you to lift more weight. 3- Take a big, sharp breath into the belly to brace. This will help keep everything tight and controlled as the weight comes down. 4- Hold your breath on the way down or continue your inhale if doing faster reps, keeping the chest puffed up, bringing the bar to the middle of the chest. This will maintain your stable shoulder position and keep the muscles engaged. 5- Dig through the feet and squeeze the glutes as you punch the weight up, expelling your breath and keeping your wrists strong. Don’t underestimate the power of your leg drive in bringing the weight up! Thinking of “punching” the bar up just helps me with momentum and not letting the wrists relax. Always make sure you start light, progress gradually, warm up well and have a spotter until you feel super confident! Dumbbells are a great way to go if learning on your own too. Hope this helps, happy lifting! 🏋🏼‍♀️

Exercise demonstrations
< 30 Minute Full Body Resistance 💪🏽 I love efficient workouts that you can squeeze into your day while still making progress and finishing feeling great. This has honestly been a good chunk of my training lately as my schedule is filling up, so I totally understand when people feel they can’t prioritise 60+ minutes each day! When doing shorter weights sessions it’s generally a good idea to focus on exercises where you can load up a bit and work multiple muscle groups (aka compound movements- think deadlifts, squats, bench press, etc). In saying that, these sessions wouldn’t be where you go close to max strength as you also want to keep rests fairly short. Super-setting, where you alternate between two exercises, can help with minimising rest and getting more in too. Here’s an example of my session today! 1a Kettlebell RDLs 10x2 1b Bulgarian lunges 10 (each side) x2 2a Kettlebell goblet squats 10x2 2b Touch & go step ups 10 (each side) x2 3a Dumbbell bench press 10x2 3b Single arm rows 10 (each side) x2 4a Man makers (drop to knees as needed) 60s x2 4b Plank (drop to knees as needed) 60s x2 Would love to hear if you give this a go or if you have any questions ☺️ Also feel free to head to my insta @trained_by_ash for an easy to follow swipe across format 👌🏽