Since I moved out of my parents house I haven’t had the time (or money) to find a new gym to workout at (I used to use the JCC near my house). For the past two weeks I’ve just been doing home exercises:
3 sets of 20 chin ups, 3 sets of 15 pull ups, 3 sets of 40 push ups.
I’ve been trying to bulk up my chest and forearms. How much am I losing out over using the bench press and real gym equipment?
You can get decent bulk with bodyweight exercises, but you’ll have a tough time building strength.
If you want to get a better bare-bones program, give this a try.
If you want to condition yourself check out the free routines at www.trainforstrength.com Your endurance, strength, and cardio will go up and you’ll probably lose fat. I use these when I’m training for a fight.
For optimum strength gains I’d suggest pull-ups, dips, and one-legged squats (ie. put a chair in front of you and step up with one leg). Get some dumbells or some weights and hold them in your hands (squats) or clutch them with your legs (pull-ups and dips) and do four to six reps per exercise. I have access to a gym and all I end up doing there are weighted chin-ups and weighted dips. Or you could do weighted push-ups with the weight on your back (I’ve never done them), just keep the reps low and the weight high if you want strength.
Here are the workouts at trainforstrength that require no equipment but will whip you into incredible shape if you can push yourself through them.
I’m curious why you say this. In my martial arts circles and from my own experiences, strength is easy but bulk is hard. Want to stress that I’m not trying to start crap, just curious.
If all you’ve got is your bodyweight, then you’re going to have trouble lifting near the top of your ability for very long, and that’s how you build maximal strength. When you’re doing martial arts training, how often do you train in the 1-4 rep range?
btw, it’s damn near impossible to bulk if you don’t eat enough to support it. I seriously think that’s the problem most people have trying to bulk up: they just don’t get the raw materials from their diet.
In martial arts, when you’re hitting harder than before, it is because your form is getting better to the “optimal” strike that wastes no excess energy, and because you have better balance, etc. Your strength was already there, but the skill to harness it wasn’t.
Martial arts really don’t make you any stronger, you have to do weights at near your maximum to make any worthwhile increases in strength. You can’t increase much muscle mass from aerobic activities like martial arts, there’s not enough resistance.
Simple answer:
The biomechanical movements of the standard push up, and the chin up (supinated - palms inward) are great for stressing the Upper Body musclature. (So is the parallel bar Dip)
The only real limitation is the fact that you are limited to using bodyweight (or a % of with a push up).
However. You can add resistance very easily. For the Chin -Up (or Dip) you can attach weight plates to a belt and chain. You can work up to some seriously heavy poundages if you train progressively. For the push up, try elevating your feet (on a book, chair. or eventually up a wall (vertical). A handstand pushup is effectively 100% of your bodyweight.
BTW Ignore any advice that refers to bulking up. If you want to bulk up eat 200 chocolate bars a day. To increase muscle mass (and therefore get stronger), you simply need to apply common sense training principles, rest and eat.
a couple of things to try…double your resistance by doing them one arm at a time, use the off arm to spot yourself. vary the spacing or your arms.
do pushups from different anges…put your feet up on a couch or chair…do them on the stairs…that’ll target the upper and lower chest.
Use milk jugs full of water as dumbbells
you can get a free 3 month membership at ballys…I beleive the details are at the discovery channel’s website…some sort of fitness challenge.
most gyms will also give you a free trial membership…usually 2 weeks to a month long.
No disrespect, but I wouldn’t discredit the advice of Ultrafilter, as he has been providing outstanding, non-gimmicky advice long before you joined SDMB. Perhaps you forgot to attach a smilie to your recommendation re: the eating of 200 chocolate bars a day, seeing as how your path would flood the human system each day with 5,000-7,000 grams of refined sugar. Talk about insulin shock! Before dishing out advice, I’d suggest you consult a physician or the South Beach Diet (cardiologists recommend it) or something issued by the ADA.
Ultrafilter, how can one get the same benefits, at home or on travel, as the lat pulldown at the gym?
As long as you’re not really heavy, you can use one of those portable chin-up bars that retails for about $20. All you need is a door frame to stick it in, and you’re good to go. If you’re not strong enough to do chin-ups yet, get something you can stand on so that you can start at the top of the movement, and concentrate on lowering yourself slowly. Keep that up for a while, and you will be strong enough to do chin-ups.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by ultrafilter *
Martial arts really don’t make you any stronger, you have to do weights at near your maximum to make any worthwhile increases in strength. You can’t increase much muscle mass from aerobic activities like martial arts, there’s not enough resistance.
Looking back I was somewhat ambiguous. What I mean was: in martial arts circles and in my personal experience bodyweight exercises are great for strength but not for mass (excluding the simple fact that diet and genetics play a role in muscle mass).
If this wasn’t clear I shall try again. Bodyweight exercises are exalted with a cultish reverance in certain fighting circles. Scrapper, Matt Furey (though hated for his money-grubbing and bizarre supernatural distorions), Wiggy, Tony Cecchine and others that don’t immediately spring to mind are loving advocates of training like old fighters. The one common denominator they all share is a love of bodyweight exercises. Wiggy likes to incorporate simple lifts, Scrapper likes Indian clubs, Tony loves sandbag routines, and avoid Matt Furey at all costs because everyone thinks he’s the devil.
Bodyweight exercises, not martial arts, fire up your cardio, endurance, and strength. You can do a lot to keep bodyweight exercises in the four to six rep range (see below) and, hence, in my martial arts circles it is roundly known that they are good for strength but not considered good for mass.
This is why I wanted an explanation, which I halfway got but with some confusion.
I indicated that when I train for strength and condition for a fight the two are vastly different things.
However, I’ve found it virtually impossible to run out of ways keep bodyweight exercises in the four to six rep range.
Observe:
Push-ups with your weight decentralized (more over one hand than the other) alternate back and forth and pretty soon you’re on your way to a one-armed push-up. That is pure strength.
Clap push-ups where you throw youself into the air at the top of the movement, clap your hands together, and then get your arms back really damn quick to catch yourself. Explosive strength.
Wall push-ups are great for shoulders and, again, you can make them harder by which arm bears the most weight. I’ve only seen one person do this, but these can also become clap push-ups.
Jump squats - self explanatory.
0ne-legged jump squats - ditto.
Clap push-ups with one hand elevated on a phone book or something. Hard as hell, but wow.
I already covered weighted dips and pullups.
Lower back work is the only thing that, in my opinion, is inferior to using weights. The best you can do with bodyweight exercises are planks and bridges.
By wall push-ups I mean handstand push-ups.
Heh. Don’t forget the clap chin-ups in there–although not too many people can do those.
I think you and I have different ideas of what constitutes really strong. I’m thinking of elite powerlifters, who move around 600-1000 pounds in competition. You’re not gonna get there with bodyweight exercises.
But if you can build all the strength you need for martial arts with your own body as resistance, I’m not gonna knock that.
In my original post, I should have said “for optimizing bodyweight strength gains” instead of “for optimizing strength gains”.
I’m currently in a Stuart McRobert lifting cycle and have been lifting for awhile so I agree that weights are the best route to strength and mass, but I’ve seen some freakishly strong men who dedicated a few years to bodyweight activities. I think bodyweight exercises are best for endurance, but way too many people ignore their strength-building qualities.
There are definitely a few bodyweight feats that require serious strength–the clap chin-up, handstand pushups, and the like. Body weight exercises are definitely a good supplement to a weight program, but I wouldn’t want to use them exclusively.