Gym Rat Fitness Personal Training Magazine

Brooke Stacey is a Fitness Model currently living in Austin, Texas.  Growing up in and around Austin, Texas, her entire life, Brooke has always had a passion for sports and the outdoors starting at a young age.

It wasn’t until the last seven years that, with a commitment to change, she was able to re-prioritize and redefine what health and fitness meant in her life.

On self-love

Self-love is so HUGE! It can start at a young age and grow with you or it could have never been established and you have to find it and create it. At the end of the day we all want to be loved and feel good about ourselves. It is so easy to compare our weaknesses to someone else’s strengths and feel bad about our self.

The key to self-love in my opinion is to maximise our own potential by strengthening our weaknesses, and embracing, sharing and nourishing our strengths.

When you realise and own that there is only one you and no one can replace that, you can also delight in the gifts you are given to share with the world. When you love yourself, it is a positive cyclical reaction and will be seen in everything you do and will be felt by everyone you touch.

On body love

Body love can be so tough for women. Our bodies go through so much in our lifetime between puberty to childbearing years to post-menopausal years. It is so important to put your health first throughout your life, to embrace and pull through all of these challenging times in our lives.

When you take control over your health, you feel better about yourself physically as well as mentally and spiritually. When you feel good about yourself, and have a positive body image of yourself you can perform all tasks with greater ability.

I think it is important to control the controllables and maximise your own potential to be the best you. After you do that, you can’t help but love all of the gifts and differences we all have and share at the same time.

The Move:
Triceps overhead Extension with Rope

Why: Keeping your body in proper standing alignment with core stabilisation and isolation of the overhead tricep extension is an excellent total body exercise with focus on the tricep muscles.

How: Attach a rope to a high pulley. After selecting an appropriate weight, grab rope with both hands and face away from the cable. With a slight bend in hips, lean forward slightly and engage core. Position your hands behind your head with elbows pointing straight up. Your elbows should start out flexed. This is your starting position.

To perform movement, extend through the elbow while keeping the upper arm in same position. Push your arms forward.

Squeeze your triceps at the top of the movement and slowly lower the weight back to the starting position.

Nail it: Keeping elbows in close to head while performing the movement will help with the isolation of the tricep extension. Keep your core engaged with shoulders down and back away from neck.

Workout by: Brooke Stacey

Photography: James Patrick

Link to article:

Triceps overhead extension with rope

The Move:
Triangle Push-Ups

Why: The triangle push-up gets its name from the position of your hands. Mastering this movement with a modified position of knees on the ground is recommended to keep proper form. The triangle push-up is an excellent total body and core exercise with emphasis on triceps.

How: Begin the move by positioning hands on the mat directly under chest with fingers spread and thumbs and forefingers touching, making a triangle shape. Straighten legs in a plank position (harder) or knees on ground (easier). Make sure the back is flat and abs are engaged as you bend the elbows, lowering until your chin or chest touches the mat. At the bottom of the movement your elbows will naturally flare out to the side. Press back up to starting position while keeping a rigid torso through entire movement.

Nail it: If you can’t go all the way down to a full push-up, go as far as you can and work your way up to a full push-up as strength grows. Exhale breath as you push back up to starting position.

Workout by: Brooke Stacey

Source –

Triangle Push-Ups

The Move:
Triceps Pushdown – Rope Attachment

Why: This is a strength, cable machine isolation movement for triceps to help target and strengthen.

How: Attach rope to a high pulley. Grab with a neutral grip, palms facing one another. Standing up with torso straight and very small inclination forward, bring your arms up to 90 degrees. This is your starting position.

Using the tricep, bring the rope down. At the end of the movement the arms are fully extended.

Nail it: The upper arms should always remain stationary next to your torso and only your forearms should move. Exhale as you perform this movement.
Keep your core engaged through the entire exercise as well as shoulders down and back away from your neck.

Workout by: Brooke Stacey

Continue reading here:

Tricep pushdown – rope attachment