The perfect upper body routine for begginers

[koltz]

The basic begginers routine by koltz

Okey first of all I had to use the word perfect , but what I meant is that it is the most balanced , middle , starter , basic so on routine that ivolves training various muscle groups equely.

I am leaving the amount of reps and frequency to you to decide , basically the closer the reps are to 50~ the less frequency you need to use , when doing higher reps cut down on the sets or spread them throughout the day , while doing lower reps you should train more frequently since your overall time under tention is low.

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Also this is a pure upper body routine , as much as the core and legs go you decide what to do with them , I reccomend training both on a different day anyway..... but for most cases you SHOULD train your legs and core so don't ignore them.
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The routine:

Pullups
pullups X 3 X max
Chins X 2 X max
Wide grip pullups X 2 X max
close grip chins X 2 X max

Dips
Dips X 3 X MAX not to faliure but close (for all excersises)
wide grip dips X 3 X max
Streching dips \ close grip dips X 3 X max

Handstand pushups:

Normal flared elbows \ grip X 3 X max
Tucked elbows X 3 X max
Wide grip flared elbows X 3 X max

If you are turlly a begginer you probably think

"OMG!! did he mean a handstand? how the hell am I going to do a handstand and what the hell is the rest anyway"

Well I'm going to explain it from the beggining now so bear with me:

The muscles ivolved
We are training 3 different movements with some variations to them:

Rows:
The main muscles ivolved are:
The posterior deltroids
Latsimus dorsi. ---Especially with a wide grip
Lower and middle traps
Brachilias --especially with narrow grips
Biceps brachii --Especially with narrow grips
Rhomboids. ---Especially with a wide grip

Presses:
Pectrolis (sternal head). ---Especially with a wide grip
Lower Traps
Anterior deltroids --especially with narrow grips
Triceps brachii --Especially with narrow grips

Overhead presses:
Anterior deltroids --especially with narrow grips
Triceps brachii --Especially with narrow grips
Lateral deltroids ---Especially with a wider grip
Pectrolis (cavicular head)
Upper traps

And others , Look in http:\\www.exrx.net (http://www.exrx.net) for more info

Excersise progressions
since we are training with bodyweight we cannot just use heavier weights unless we fattern up which is not wanted mostly...
But we can progress into harder positions , for more info look at the levels in this site or PM me.

Presses:
Decline pushups(agienst a wall or a table) ---> Pushups ---> Side to side pushups ---> Dips ---> side to side dips ---> one arm pushups ---> one arm levrage pushups ----> one arm dips

Pulls:
Pullups agienst a doorframe(standing near and holding a doorframe leaning back and pulling to it) ---> bodyweight rows ----> kipping pullups ---> pullups --->side to side pullups ---> one arm pullups

overhead presses:
Bent pushups agienst a wall(Bent means you bend at your hips a bit so yuor shoulders face whatever you push slightly that's all) ----> bent pushups ----> incline bent pushups ---->high incline bent pushups --->handstand pushups ---> side to side handstand pushups --->handstand dips ---->side to side handstand dips ----> one arm incline bent pushups ----> one arm handstand pushups / dips

Oviously if you are near the harder excersises you are beyond the help of this tutorial but heck they are impressive !

Regarding dips and handstands
You can do pullups almost anywhere on a door a treebranch a park or just a pullup bar , but dipping bars are rarer and pretty much useless , Use abjuctable Pbars or simply padded identical chairs to do dips between them this way you controll the width of the motion.

For handstands you can try practicing on a soft place like a matraass that faces a wall (like your bed) starting from a headstand and eventually learning to kick into a handstand , when you can do it agienst a wall your good to go , but make sure yo put a pillow underneath you when ever you can and ALWAYS when you start out , also don't do it in small spaces sicne you end up crashing down on stuff unless it's a narrow room that the wall might jsut catch you.
for more info on handstands go to beastskills.com , but make sure you do not miss it it's mandatory for all BW trainees!!

a few more notes:
Well if you don't understand anything PM me and Ill fix the section on it and also I need some good vids and images for the excersises so if anyone can send some would be welcome

And also try to make sure you got close numbers of reps on each of the movements...


~fin~

[-TM-]

wow you should be a mod or something nice post.

ty 4 the info

[eldus]

Excuse me if this sounds stupid, but do you have to do the whole routine when you feel like it/aren't sore? or do whatever excersise you feel like doing?

I guess it's the first, but I want to know.

Great guide, btw!

eldus

[demonicfreak]

sum1 shld sticky this up!!

P.S: what do u mean by "X 3 X"?

[koltz]

I mean the amount os sets done adn after that the reps.

And suppose youre an avrage run out of the mill begginer who can do 10 reps of his chosen excersise (He should all the three movements with about the same level of difficulty in the excersise) he should be doing it 3 or so times a week.. but you should work out all 3 movements with all the sets to keep balance

[eldus]

Hey Koltz, have to thank you bigtime for this! Specially for the "progression guide", I started this routine today using the excersises that suit me best and I'm a little embarrased to say I can do a few one arm pushups but I can barely pull off 3 HSPU in my good days so I'm starting with high incline bent PUs and they feel hard!

Clearly my shoulders are my weak spot, I'll keep at it. :oops:

Thanks again! I'd make this a sticky, it's not necessarily a just-beginners upper body routine.

eldus

[kawana]

wow this is awsome, for the press progression im only up to side to side pushups, and i can only do bout 10 lol, but dips i can do 15ish. How many should we be able to do for each progression before we move to the next one?

[koltz]

Depends on your goals , it's weird that you do mroe dips then side to side pushups since there much easier probably a limiting factor or small ROM on dips

[kawana]

ya, by dips your talking about the 2 bars and you hang between them right? If so then ya i can so bout 10-20 depending if my arms are sore, but side to side pushups, i find it relativly hard to push out 10-13max. Ill try more at the gym tonight. I have a question though, Im not sure which type of pushups i should be doing. I can do:

pressups: 15-20
diamond pushups: 10-15
knuckle pushups: 15-20
high incline pushpus: 10-15 (high incline, my feet are about 1-2 feet higher than my head when my arms are fully extended.)
Side2side: 10-13

Which of these would be most beneficial do you think? or do they workout different muscle groups? I prefer to do knuckle pushups as im trying to strengthan my wrist. It became week after i broke it awhile back, plus i find them more confortable, but side 2 side feel as though they work my arms+shoulders out more.

[koltz]

http://exrx.net/WeightExercises/PectoralSternal/WtChestDip.html

This dip full ROM

knuckle pushups don't strengthen your wirst , there infact easier on it

you should have the same numbers in same difficulty excersises for all movements , and do the muscle group that your weakest in the first

you mentioned diamond pushups , there only good for the "narrow grip" part , you need to pick somethign for the wide grip part and normal one

for high incline pushups do them for the shoulders with bent torso , for the chest din't go over 45 degree incline , just do a harder variation if you need.

[Sepanto]

what are sts pushups and kipping pullups? and how do you do a bent pushup?

[joe8y]

this is a brilliant thread. Going to get well stuck into this. One question though. I already have really strong quads and calfs. I do alot of running and walking aswell. Would i still need to do a workout on my legs? just asking because my legs get pumped quite easily and tho my upper body is quite pumped i feel strangely imbalanced. Any tips?

[koltz]

don't do legs then I guess

I got a genetic impalance like this too or maybe it's due to "use" for more time in my life

for thoose who want to do legs you can do some switches , pistols and one leg lunges

[joe8y]

Yea i think I'm not going to do legs for now but if it starts going the other way then just some basics squats etc

[twinwings]

Um this is nice and all, but most beginners I know, can't do half of those exercises.

[twinwings]

Um this is nice and all, but most beginners I know, can't do half of those exercises.

[koltz]

your begginer friends can't do pushups standing agienst a wall??

or you jsut can't read =\

[crisgaecar]

an example is alone, if you read well further down of the routine koltz it gives a progression of exercises (pushup, side to side pushup, dip, side to side dip, one arm pushup, etc)
you can do the same routine with the exercises that you are capable (ex-, pushup on knees, assisted pullup, etc)
and of to little to progress to the most difficult exercises

[koltz]

thanks cris ,

btw I should add a legs routine soon , since my BWC knowledge of leg training is better at the moment , still not a perfect substitude to weight training like upper body BWC but you can get pretty big legs with BWC

[ricedice]

please add legs routine, i'll totally appreciate it
Your upper workout kicksass, nice man nice.!

[koltz]

Yeah I should , I actually want to write a book\ebook about home training actually ,for a while too

[ricedice]

cool, i'll be checking on the site, if your done with the leg workout.

[ricedice]

Hey koltz, what do you recommend the amount of days of training your upper body. Like do you have a proper scedule for those wanting to increase size?

[koltz]

3-5 I think.

p.s this is sooo outdated to what I now know that can be done with BWC

[Martial]

Well, I noticed that the author mentioned dipping bars are hard to find...

Well, find a pocket on a counter, or corner. if you have a corner or counter that converges such as _| and if I'm feeling excessively bored, I just do a few sets of dips on those. Probably uses slightly different muscles...

[crazydan]

koltz u thnking about doing a lower body and or core workout?

[gca]

Hi koltz

Thanks for the workout. Definitely what im going to be using as my building block

What is the difference between

1.Pullups VS Wide grip pull ups
and
2.Chins VS Close grip chins

[cheesedog]

Hi koltz

Thanks for the workout. Definitely what im going to be using as my building block

What is the difference between

1.Pullups VS Wide grip pull ups
and
2.Chins VS Close grip chins

I'm pretty sure Koltz is serving in the Isreali Armed Forces right now so he's probably not able to get back to you! But to answer your questions, a standard pullup your hands are about shoulder-width apart, place them wider for wide grips. On the Chin once again place your hands about shoulder-width, for close-grip chin place your hands with only a couple of inches between them.

[gca]

Got it. Thanks

[amiitk]

sir ihave qustion for u wt is th difference between dips and push ups sir and wt kind three movement u were discussing in ur answer ..... x3x wts that can explain


and i want do work out runtin for my all back most ly lower back have scoliosis want develop my body back wt can i do for my knees sir

[amiitk]

wt is th difference between dips and push ups


and can u tell me can i do for my back muscle i have scoliosis in uper back now my lower back disc have compressed i want develop my full body muscle of ever part can u tell me some rutine and wt can i eat i live in india its hot here

[amiitk]

[quote=koltz;49215]The basic begginers routine by koltz


can u tell me wt ca i do for my back muscle development....

and u mention push ups x3x wtst that mean .. hand stand push mean can i take support for wall and how much i have to do as bigner i want develop my all muscle i have scoliosis upper back can u send some rutine for my leg muscle core and uper body

[hairlesswookiee]

thanks for the write up. i've been trying to progress through pushups lately. i just got a power tower so hopefully i can get more dips and pullups.

[LosingWeightTheHardWay]

Wow, nice work man! I'm definatly going to do that work out, except for handstands, hahah. One question though, dips. I was on a diet until I found out I would lose muscle. They said dips is perfect if you're going to go on a diet and you still wanted Upper Body strength. Does dips do your arms and chest?

Thanks.

P.S If you know of a work out to do while on a diet, please tell me. I would like to get rid of some Body fat:)

[cheesedog]

Koltz is serving in the Isreali army right now, but I'll answer up for him. Dips are a great exercise for your chest, shoulders, triceps. Unless you have a shoulder injury do them! As for a workout you could just follow Koltz's for your upper body and add in some leg and core work on other days, or go to the link in my sig for a more basic template.