Pecs to be proud of: California fitness sensation Jenny Lynn shows you how to add razzle-dazzle to your chest routine

Muscle & Fitness/Hers, Jan-Feb, 2003 by Kathleen Engel

For a pro fitness competitor, the pectoralis is. yawn, hardly a sexy topic. Attend a show and you'll hear spectators comment on just about everything but: lean and curvy legs, tight abs, rounded glutes, tapered back, developed shoulders and shapely arms. Yep, the pecs alone get pretty short shrift in the praise department.

Ironic, isn't it, when you consider that the chest is such a critical bodypart? "Chest strength is really important for the gymnastics and all the strength moves we do." vouches Jenny Lynn, a newcomer to the pro fitness scene. "You need to have good chest strength to facilitate those moves, like the one-arm push-ups we do."

Okay, so the average woman doesn't have to fret too much about her one-arm push-up strength, but gaining a bit of power in the pecs is important for noncompetitors as well. "You want muscle balance," Jenny points out -- and as a personal trainer who works out of two facilities near her home in Alamo, California, she should know. "Training your chest properly helps prevent injury. If you train back all the time but never chest, you may be prone to shoulder and pectoral injuries because of the imbalance."

competitive fire

Jenny obviously heeds her own advice. With a physique developed through years of athletics and training, she turned pro at the 2001 NPC USAs and made her pro debut at the invitation-only 2002 Fitness International. She placed 12th, regrouped, then scored a reassuring fifth at the New York Pro show a couple of weeks later.

"I'm hoping to he back at the Fitness International next year and reprove myself," she says. To that end, Jenny has been sprinting and hitting the bleachers to tighten up her legs and glutes. But the lion's share of her time is devoted to the gymnastics work and dance classes that will make a difference during the routine rounds.

While a number of fitness pros began tumbling at an early age, Jenny didn't have that advantage. "My mom hears about it every time I compete," she laughs. She grew up in Petaluma, California, with her parents and older brother, ran a little track and goofed around with her friends. It wasn't until high school that Jenny found her athletic niche in cheerleading, attending camps and competing nationally with her team. After graduation, she began taking and teaching aerobics. That soon turned into a competitive endeavor as well.

"I competed in Sportaerobics in 1992, when I was 20 years old, and again at 24." She took a silver medal in the Northern California championships as part of a team of three, then went solo to garner a bronze four years later. But competition doesn't pay the bills, and Jenny focused on a career that she loves still: personal training.

"I continued to weight train and had put on a decent amount of muscle," she remarks. Friends and family who had seen fitness contests on TV had a new game in mind for Jenny, and it wasn't far-fetched. Jenny was used to performing and competing in front of an audience; the compulsory moves she had mastered in Sportaerobics were similar to those in fitness. In 2000, she took up the challenge.

While some competitors rake years to ascend the fitness ranks, Jenny disproved the "rake it slow" recommendations of NPC judges. Her quick success in two regional shows led her to the NPC Nationals in her first year of competing, where she took third in the tall class. Back to the drawing board, Jenny honed her physique, tackled the gymnastics and turned pro the following summer at the USA Championships.

balance

While life now sounds fairly idyllic, Jenny, who will marry Ron LaVelle "between competitions" in 2003, is looking to the future. "I want to have a family at some point and add to my two dogs. Zeus is a 5-year-old chocolate lab. He's a 110-pound lapdog! Thor is my 9-month-old golden lab."

Given her startling climb up the fitness ranks, Jenny is sanguine about her future competitive plans. "I'm going to take a year at a time, continue to make improvements in my physique and my routine, and try to place better," she offers.

The really nice thing about Jenny is the sense of balance she has achieved while participating in such a competitive sport. Helping her clients achieve their goals provides enormous satisfaction. Playing with her dogs in her large backyard gives pure pleasure. Life is good.

push-up

This classic exercise is a staple in Jenny's chest training. She assumes the push-up position, hands about 4 inches outside her shoulders. "Contract your abs and keep your neck aligned with your spine," she advises. "Stay up on your toes, if you can. Keep in nice and controlled, two seconds down, two up. Exhale as you push past the most difficult point. For variety, I'll occasionally put my feet on top of a Swiss ball or bench to increase the difficulty." This also changes the angle of the movement to involve more of the upper chest.

flat-bench dumbbell press

Jenny puts her feet up at the end of the bench. "If your legs aren't long enough to reach the floor, your lower back lifts from the pad," she cautions. With her shoulder blades in contact with the bench throughout the movement, she contracts her chest and presses the dumbbells up so they meet over her chest -- but controls the movement so they don't "click" at the top. Jenny likes to follow a steady tempo, roughly two counts up and two down. About the negative portion of the move, she says, "My elbows come back just past parallel to the floor to get a slight stretch through the pecs, but not so deep where I risk injury to my shoulder joints."