"Bro, do you even lift?"
Which is to say: My dear internet, do you do upper body exercises? If so, what are they?
For a while, my running was a near full bodied exercise and included core muscles and abs, and arms to pump. That was great. The indoor bike I've been using for the past few months has very little, if anything, to do with anything above the waist.
So: What's a boy to do? Start running again, so I can do the annual 5k this year?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I do body-weight hanging exercises, but not enough of them ... I want to get to the point where I can pull up to top out on a ledge above eye-level, using my feet on the wall to push. It sounds easy. It is not easy.
ReplyDeleteMy problem is that upper body exercises are so utterly boring. Running or biking, I make progress, I see new scenery. Lifting weights, doing push-ups or pull-ups, working the heavy-bag ... I just count reps and pass time. Suggestions very much welcome.
I suggest a sport that's fun, such as swimming, tennis, or rock climbing. These are all available indoors, year-round and are solid full-body activities.
ReplyDeleteLifting weights is boring-ass shit. Don't do it. ;)
Or if the gym is the only option, audiobooks.
ReplyDeleteI love rock-climbing and tennis, but they are not solo activities. I suppose my hermit-like social lifestyle inclines me toward lower-body exercise (the better to flee those who would make eye contact).
ReplyDeleteSean Leventhal may have opinions, but will also likely involve podcasts
ReplyDeleteI did, until I hurt myself (rotator cuff strain) and then I didn't, and then I did work with a tension band, and now I do again, but with much less weight. Just basic stuff, trying as best as possible (with oversight from a physiotherapist) to comfortably use my rotator cuff muscles to prevent myself from repeating that same injury.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the You Are Your Own Gym app, because I could work out in my apartment in sight of the TV, but my doors aren't sturdy enough for some of the exercises they wanted me to do, so I stopped.
Technically, it's possible to practice tennis solo (hit against a wall), and some climbing gyms provide auto-belays and all have bouldering, which obviate the need for human interaction. ;)
ReplyDeleteI mix weight and running exercises. The people I lift with optimize this stuff way more than I do. For upper body I generally prefer free weights with multiple joints working because I find it more functional. It helps to have a buddy, mostly because lifting isn't so interesting.
ReplyDeleteIf you really want to optimise this stuff I'm told the variables you want to vary are: light vs medium vs heavy, multi vs single joint, machine vs free weight, dependent vs independent weight on the two sides, and the order of muscle groups through the week. I don't do that much though.
Oh, and then a personal pet peeve, no one should lift weights and not include lower back exercises. Getting the form right helps protect you the most, but it is an easy spot to ignore, and a likely way to hurt yourself.
ReplyDeleteI'm a member of a rock climbing gym (and know there is one pretty near you), and while I'm normally doing lead and top rope stuff with a partner, bouldering is always available if I'm going solo.
ReplyDeleteI love strength training generally and weight lifting specifically; I find it peaceful and empowering, personally, and am delighted to chat about it if you like.
ReplyDeleteWhat are your goals? Are there activities you'd like to be able to do better (e.g., climb trees, punch nazis)? Injury prevention? Aesthetics, aka getting swole? Depending on which of these you're after would shape how you will want to train.
For upper body lifting, if you're interested, it helps me to divide it into
Two vectors - horizontal and vertical
Two actions - push and pull
So to combine those, and rotate between them, I would do something like:
day a :
horizontal push (like pushups or a bench press) and
vertical pull (like chinups)
day b :
vertical push (overhead press or handstand pushup) and
horizontal pull (row type exercises)
Hope this helps - and let me know if you'd like to chat more!
Ooh, I like the h/v push/pull combo-pack. So like "push-ups and pull-ups" one day, then "reverse under-bar pull-ups and handstand push-ups" another? Where do things like dips fit in? Still vertical press, even though it's down rather than up?
ReplyDeleteTony Lower-Basch - Exactly! With at least one day of not-lifting in between to let your muscles recover. That pattern also makes it clearer, at least to me, what are good things to substitute, especially depending on what's available to you. Don't have weights? Pushups instead of bench. Rows can be done hanging off a bar or a table, or by using a cable station, or with weights.
ReplyDeleteDips - Hmm, I suppose they probably would be vertical presses, as you say? Honestly, I shy away from them, since they are somewhat prone to causing shoulder injuries, in the materials I've read -- though ymmv.
I tried some sort of shoulder exercise this morning.
ReplyDeleteThe building has a weight machine. I set it for ~18 pounds on either side, put the grippers at shoulder height, faced outwards and pushed downward. That was definitely good in the shoulders, with all the right sort of muscle awareness. I did ten reps, then left. Came back thirty minutes later and did another 20.
That worked as a good baseline, to get my shoulders activated and involved.
Part of the problem is a lot of real obvious exercises that don't work in isolation -- rocking climbing, tennis -- have side-to-side knee stress, which aggravates my existing injuries. I can do direct line stress without additional harm, but anything back and forth seems to aggravates it in a bad way.
As for goals, Monica Fulvio: "punching nazis" is in the right vein, but more aimed at defense. I do not have the physical awareness to safely (for any definition) put myself between a nazi and, say, a mosque. That needs to change.
William Nichols: Ooooh, you got a plan for what you're going to train in? Many forms will relegate upper body strength to the status of "accessory."
ReplyDelete