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What I mean by that is the upper rib area (bra line). Or will it increase as my cardio health gets better? I would like to add an inch or two but have no idea what I should even do there. What muscles should I look at to build?
What I'm picturing is that you are talking about the area on either side of the center abdominal muscles, immediately below the pectoral muscles. These would be the muscles that appear to run in a line that points outward from the center of the upper abs, roughly parallel to the ribs underneath. If I've got the right idea about the area you're talking about, these are the upper internal oblique muscles. They are used in motions involving the twisting of the torso. The twisting ab exercises are good for these, exercises such as alternating (elbow to opposite knee) crunches or twisting sit-ups. One really good exercise for these muscles is Russian twists, though this is a very demanding exercise, and you might want to wait to do this until you have gotten the area into some basic condition with less demanding exercises like alternating crunches and twisting sit-ups.
I checked out the link you included. The serratus anterior is the muscle group I thought you were talking about, the one you work with movements that involve twisting the torso. The external abdominal oblique is used for leaning to the side. I've never known the name of the exercise, but the standard exercise for these muscles is the one where you hold a dumbbell down by your side, then lean over to the side on which you're holding the dumbbell as far as you comfortably can, followed by leaning as far as you can to the other side against the resistance of the weight. Do it on both sides separately. Not knowing the name of the exercise, I call it the "suitcase lift." It's basically the motion your upper body would make if you picked up a heavy suitcase and leaned to the other side to pull against the weight of the suitcase as you carried it.
As for the lattisimus dorsi, the pull-up motion is the exercise for this muscle. The weight machine exercise that mimics the pull-up motion, except that you pull the bar connected to weights down to you instead of pulling yourself up to the bar, is called the LAT pulldown for a reason. It's because it works the LATS. If you don't have access to weight machines, you'll need to innovate something with what you have available, but basically the pull-up motion is what you want for working the lats.
The push-up workout in the link looks fairly demanding. It appears to be something that a person already in reasonably good shape would do to advance to a pretty high level of fitness in the muscles involved. If you're in solid shape already, go for it. If you're just getting started on an exercise program, it's probably better to work up gradually to the level where you would try that workout, not do it from the beginning of your fitness program. The other point to consider is that push-ups, while they are a really good exercise, do not work all the muscles of the upper body. To maintain good balance among all the muscles, you need to do some other exercises as well, including some pulling movements to add some contrasting balance to the muscles used in push-ups.
This question really had me stumped for a while. Upper rib/bra line area. Hmmmm........
Im thinking that the exercises mentioned by Crusted are the ones you want to do. Also, close grip pulldowns and kettlebell swings as well.
Do you think the kettlebell would be too strainful on my wrist? I have one I have to baby and get the tendons back in shape (cyst history)
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