Greets

[Moonduck]

I'm new here, and a recovering fat guy. By that I mean I'm a victim of Adult-onset Athlete. At the age of 34 I decided it was time to stop being a fat guy and get into better shape. Lost 60lbs so far (largely maintaining my lean muscle mass, happily), but I still have a ways to go (about another 30lbs or so).

I am finding myself really weak in the upper body, and have neither the time nor the inclination to go to the gym. Weight-training is something that I like to do, but I simply cannot motivate without a good workout partner/spotter. So I happened on bodyweight exercises as a form of resistance training, and made my way here.

Stas? Hrm, I can do squats all day (preferring the sumo-style, as I'm beginning to play with the kettlebell), and calf-lifts for as long as you'd like (I ride the bicycle a lot, so strong calves are normal). But my push-ups are pathetic (like 3 sets of 5-6) and I can't even think about a chin-up. I've been doing some of the basic exercises from the lower two levels to get some better basic conditioning, but am looking to increase.

My goal? One-arm push-ups, full pistols, and regular old chin-ups. Easy enough, right? Not for the aforementioned big fat guy. Hopefully I can get some good technique and advice here. Looking forward to chatting with you all.

[jonp382]

Hola, I've been working on increasing my strength too with the same exercises. For about 3 weeks I worked my way up to 2 dozen wide hand push-ups and 2 dozen close hand push-ups. I worked my way there by having one arm in the middle and one way out to my side, and doing it on the other side. I also practiced holding myself at the bottom for 30 seconds. Finally worked up to a dozen and then started holding one of my legs up and out to the side while doing it 2 dozen on each side. Was finally able to perform a one arm push-up, just today, doing that...

I've been able to always do one leg squats or pistols whatever you call them, so I don't know what to advise there.

As for chin-ups, do you have a chinning bar? A lot of people here are into chin-ups and muscle-ups and they'll fly you through them. :wink:

Oh and, one arm pull-ups/chin-ups and one-arm push-ups can help to strengthen your forearm too. Muscle-ups I imagine also require forearm strength and power.

[Moonduck]

I just recently got a pull-up bar (power-tower, actually, fairly cheap too), and I'm sad (but honest) to say that I can't even do one. can't even come close. Then again, as I said, I'm a big fat guy, so I've got a lot of extra weight. I'm 254lb currently (down from 316lb), 5'11" tall, so I'm not kidding about the big fat guy thing. I need to both gain strength and lose weight before I can really make progress on the pull-ups.

I think I'm going to try both the push-up bottom hold, as that is my weakest area in the ROM, and the one arm in and one arm out thing.

And thanks for the reply and advice!

[koltz]

Hmm... welcome aboard , please make a workout log in it's right forum and start posting there so we can see hwo you progress :)

my recomendations for upepr body strength:
1.daily GTG on all movements practicing good form (not the arc you lift the weight like the gym bunnies try so hard to do right but the muscle recuitment patterns and shoudler blade position etc)
2.ressistance cardio like rowing , dumbell jump rope stuff like this that pump up your upper body (pump in a way blood rushes in HARD , if you get good at it your muscle controll\sensitivity\strength along with recovery and size will skyrocket)
3.max effort every 3 days or so work for hypotrophy or whatever with big dropsets
4. godo nutrition lots of sleep and a rest day or two a week

not orthodox but I find theese the very fundamental rules for buildign a powerfull upper body

Oh right you should base your workout on the following movements:

militery press
bench press
row theese are the basic movements that should be in any upper body workout

[Moonduck]

So far I've been stopping to do a handful of push-ups irregularly throughout the day. I usually do 3 quick sets and do them multiple times. While the number of push-ups hasn't gone up much, they are getting easier to do. I'm trying to avoid pushing to failure, as I don't want exhaustion setting in. I figure I'm in it for the long haul, no need to go crazy right yet.

I'm gonna avoid the jump rope right now. Had knee surgery a year or so ago (a contributing factor to my big fat guy-ness), and while my knee is a lot better (especially since I started exercising) I won't do deep squats or too much jumping. Again, I don't mind a slower pace. I want to get back into jumping rope, as it was something that worked well for me years ago. For now, I'm happy to do what I can do.

You mentioned rowing for cardio, by that do you mean bent rows with free weights, or rowing machine style rows?

[koltz]

So far I've been stopping to do a handful of push-ups irregularly throughout the day. I usually do 3 quick sets and do them multiple times. While the number of push-ups hasn't gone up much, they are getting easier to do. I'm trying to avoid pushing to failure, as I don't want exhaustion setting in. I figure I'm in it for the long haul, no need to go crazy right yet.

I'm gonna avoid the jump rope right now. Had knee surgery a year or so ago (a contributing factor to my big fat guy-ness), and while my knee is a lot better (especially since I started exercising) I won't do deep squats or too much jumping. Again, I don't mind a slower pace. I want to get back into jumping rope, as it was something that worked well for me years ago. For now, I'm happy to do what I can do.

You mentioned rowing for cardio, by that do you mean bent rows with free weights, or rowing machine style rows?
First paragraph = GTG if you didn't know what I meant since your a beginner , you are pretty much doing what it is

Anyway I mean the rowing machines erm sort of... you can just bey a chest expandor hook one handle to a door and hold the other handle with two arms sqyuat down and pull youll see when you try I think a cheaper and as good alternative instead of paying 300$ for avrage rowing machines hehe
P.s rope is easier on your knees then running you jump up and down but hardly 6 cm the upper body does a lot of work though just do them all

the cool thing about cardio with ressistance is that you gain a lot of muscle sensitivity from it and build blood vessles around the muscle which promote fast recovery

[Moonduck]

I've been reading some of Pavel Tsatouline's books and read up on the GTG theory. That's some good stuff there.

I can see what you're saying on the rope jumping. It's more of a minor shock to the knee with the calves and upper body doing the heavy lifting. I may give it a try. Makes me wonder if I have my old weight rope around.

Thanks for the ideas, Koltz.