By Phillip Tomlinson

What a guy!

You may even have heard of him.

Pulled off a nifty trick a long, long time ago because – let’s just say – he had shoulders of gold.

Held captive with his son Icarus in a high tower surrounded by walls – Daedalus threw a stone at one of the many vultures awaiting their demise, with the ricochet killing a second bird.

Then father and son fashioned wings and flew home.

While you’ll never be pulling off this Greek mythology slight-of-hand, how about pursuing a different kind of magic on the road to developing, among other things, your own broad-winged shoulders of gold.

Since you wouldn’t pass up the chance to become a Greek god or goddess, check out the Bodinsync Prescription below for a compound movement that’ll have you standing tall and breaking down plateau walls by killing several birds with one stone.

A word of warning though:

You may be getting more than you bargained for, because this one exercise targets the majority of your shoulder and upper back muscles – side and anterior deltoids, trapezius, rhomboids, teres minor, etc. and, as a bonus, your glutes, quads, hamstrings and abdominals.

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BODINSYNC PRESCRIPTION

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1. Select a dumbbell you can easily handle, stand facing away from the side of a weight bench, bend one leg up behind you to place your instep on the bench, and place the weight in front of your supporting leg as in diagram 1.

Your front leg should be bent to facilitate flat placement of your back instep on the bench as in diagram 2.

You’re now in position to do a Bulgarian-split squat.

1. Do a full squat, reaching across your body with the arm opposite your supporting leg to snatch the weight from the ground, as in diagram 3.  CAUTION:  Be sure to position your front leg at the appropriate distance from the bench to ensure that the squatting leg bends at a 90-degree angle. This will prevent putting undue strain on your knee.

 

1. Stand back up, weight in hand,  to assume the diagram-1 starting position.  Square your shoulders, straighten your back and pull the weight up under your chin to do a standing row as in diagram 4.

 

 

THAT’S ONE REPETITION.  To start another, squat back down and reach across your body with the weight to touch the floor.  Do 10 and switch legs to do another 10 on the opposite side.

TIP:   If this routine proves too difficult, you may forego using the bench and start by placing your back leg behind you to assume a lunge squat position, your heel up and the ball of your foot on the floor. You would then – with this one exception – follow the rest of the routine exactly as above.