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Toddo
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developing a stronger upper body.. your own experiences
#5727579 - 06/08/06 04:49 PM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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hey everyone! I feel like I'm always looking for inspiration and knowing about everyone else techniques, when it comes to working out. I have a pretty weak upper body. I'm in shape (keeping up with push ups/cardio/back/crunches) but I want some advice on developing a stronger chest/arms. Perhaps a better question is putting on mass on my upper body. (which is near impossible for me i might add )
Lets hear what you guys do to develop your upper body's. Ive heard that there are ways to develop a healthy chest and well built arms. So lets hear it! (btw.. i know theres alot of threads on working out.. so bust out some new ideas to keep this one fresh. )
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gogrowgo123
all the same

Registered: 10/18/05
Posts: 249
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Re: developing a stronger upper body.. your own experiences [Re: Toddo]
#5728387 - 06/08/06 08:59 PM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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eat a lot, but eat clean, very clean. work out hard in a gym lifting weights. do the most weight you can on an exercise machine, but not so much that you cant do 12-15. once thats easy, increase the weight.
persistence is key, cause you wont see results unless you stick with it for a while.
-------------------- "For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate."
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barfightlard
tales of theinexpressible



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Re: developing a stronger upper body.. your own experiences [Re: Toddo]
#5728625 - 06/08/06 09:42 PM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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lots of posts here about gaining strength, basically:
eat big eat right work out hard work out right (low reps high weight, no cardio while bulking) get good rest
look around this forum and youl find all you need to know
--------------------
"What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, say, think, who I fuck, what I take into my body - as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet?" - Bill Hicks
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The_Hobbit
Bilbo Baggins


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Re: developing a stronger upper body.. your own experiences [Re: barfightlard]
#5729488 - 06/09/06 02:52 AM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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My advice: Handstands, handstand pushups, pushups (fingertips, knuckles, flat palm, divebomber), pullups, chins, hangs (just hang there as long as possible), dips, isometric contractions.
This requires a tree or a bar to do the pullups and chins, and a dip station if you like to dip.
Remember that putting on size is a full body thing. You cannot gain that much weight simply working the upper body. If you do leg stuff as well, you will develop the whole of your body much quicker. For legs, I do bodyweight squats(some jumping at the end), running, and sprints.
One trick for the squats is to prepare yourself (by being properly grounded) in this kind of position: http://myspace-716.vo.llnwd.net/00780/61/78/780428716_l.jpg I start off on the tips of my feet and when the pain becomes too great I will lower my heels. You will know it's working when you can feel the tension in your feet.
The trick with a good workout is to stay relaxed. Don't get angry. Just stay FOCUSED. Find a cool place to do it so you have an enjoyable scenery. Learn how to correctly apply tension and push yourself to the limit. High intensity is where it's at for results.
hobbitcg (11:04:32 PM): when I say high intensity hobbitcg (11:04:34 PM): I mean.. hobbitcg (11:04:41 PM): if you do a workout where your heart rate is up high hobbitcg (11:04:44 PM): and you can keep it going for a long time hobbitcg (11:04:46 PM): that is good hobbitcg (11:05:01 PM): whether than means run, pushups, run, pushups hobbitcg (11:05:08 PM): or handstand, sprints hobbitcg (11:05:14 PM): or squats, walking hobbitcg (11:05:18 PM): whatever you can do hobbitcg (11:05:20 PM): is up to you hobbitcg (11:05:30 PM): don't put the value in the exercise like 'ok this should help' hobbitcg (11:05:41 PM): the only way to think is: stay relaxed, stay focused hobbitcg (11:05:45 PM): and work hard hobbitcg (11:06:12 PM): and go by results.. by functional results that have an impact
-------------------- Smoking my hobbit leaf... Please keep in mind that I am just a human being. Please read my posts carefully and interpret their meaning for yourself.
Edited by hobbitcg (06/09/06 03:04 AM)
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Edit
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Re: developing a stronger upper body.. your own experiences [Re: The_Hobbit]
#5729496 - 06/09/06 02:58 AM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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Hobbits covered most of what I was gonna say (chinups are most definatley the quickest route to bigger arms). Gotta say as well though, if you cant be fucked with boring exercise repetitions just take up climbing (from trees to climbing walls to cliffs). Very intensive natural workout focused on the upper body... and fun!
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Zen Peddler


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Re: developing a stronger upper body.. your own experiences [Re: The_Hobbit]
#5762655 - 06/18/06 12:19 AM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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as someone else said - the easiest and cheapest, yet probably the best way to build a good amount of muscle on your upper arms, shoulders and pecs is to do a shit load of pushups. When they become easy, move your feet onto a table or up a wall so there is more resistance. Chinups will buildup muscle on your upper arms like nothing else - and different grips develop different muscles. I used to put 20kg weights on my feet as well.
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zoomed
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Re: developing a stronger upper body.. your own experiences [Re: Zen Peddler]
#5763975 - 06/18/06 10:43 AM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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Lift some dumbells and barbells if you want to get big.
Start a 4 day split something like Monday - Chest/biceps Tuesday - Legs Thursday - Shoulders Friday - Back/triceps
A good choice of exercises to start with for each muscle would be
Chest/biceps - Bench press, incline dumbell press, dumbell flyes EZ Bar Curls, Hammer Curls, narrow grip pull ups
Legs - Squats, Stiff Leg Deadlifts, calf raises
Shoulders - Military Press, Front Raises, Side Lateral Raises, Shrugs
Back/triceps - Bent over barbell rows, tbar rows, hyperextensions(or deadlifts after a while) wide grip pullups. Triceps - Close grip bench press, dips, overhead dumbell extensions
Eventually after you start figuring out what works for you you can switch up exercises. All these plus many many more exercises with illustrated previews can be found at http://abcbodybuilding.com/slideshow.php?id=16&subId=37
I know you said *upper* body but it is very important to train you legs just as hard, actually should be harder, then you do everything else. Your legs are your support and at the very least should be kept in perportion with your upper body. Your legs will make it easy to make gains as they release large amounts of testosterone when worked.
Other then that eat healthy and get 8 hours of sleep. BTW I forgot to mention, limit your workouts to no more then 90 minutes, test. levels start to drop after an hour of working out.
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browndustin
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Re: developing a stronger upper body.. your own experiences [Re: Toddo]
#5769657 - 06/19/06 08:06 PM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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It was mentioned by hobbit earlier and I'll add to the fact.
My chest did not grow until I worked out my legs. Compound movements like squats (especially the squat - this is the best complete exersize) will work the most muscle fibers and is also a functional exersize. It will help your body to release the important growth hormone which is necessary for growth. Do not neglect recovery as well! If you want to get big, up your caloric intake above all. Without calories, you can eat protein till the cows come home and you'll just get backed up if you know what I mean.
For a big upper body, you can do flat bench with a barbell as it's a great mass builder.
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=body_115b600
If you want a bigger bench, get your technique down and work your triceps with excersizes like close grip bench press, weighted dips (bodyweight is completely fine!) and french presses and skullkrushers.
For bigger arms, pull ups and hammer curls argueably stimulate the most muscle fibers and also works out your forearms and other muscles.
As far as weights vs reps, just make sure to stick with the 4-8 rep range or possibly higher. Don't go super heavy with low weights unless you want to get stronger like a power lifter. If you want to get strong and big like a body builder, it's looking to me like you do need a big of a higher rep range. Just don't rob yourself and go ultra light and try "toning" your muscles. You will start getting muscle maturity with time. Toning is just stupid.
-------------------- When the stress burns my brain it's like acid raindrops maryjane is the only thing that makes the pain stop
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entiformatie
EvolutionaryMovements

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Re: developing a stronger upper body.. your own experiences [Re: Toddo]
#5783528 - 06/23/06 11:27 AM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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www.rosstraining.com
pullups, pushups (try elevating your feet to increase resistance. you can do this until you're in a handstand position, and then even further, which will train your ab muscles, i'm assuming) burpess (google it) isometric excercises (ie. pushing against a wall for an extended period of time) - isometric excercises involve a position in which you do not move, nor does your source of resistance, but you are still working your muscles (ie. holding a pushup at different points)
do some research into fast-twitch and slow-twitch fibers, and learn how your muscles work, to better tailor your excercises. doing a particular excercise after second one will have a different effect on your muscles than after a completely different excercise, depending on what aspect of your muscles it is targetting, and all this other crap i'm still trying to understand...
i highly recommend "never gymless" from rosstraining.com.
-------------------- /opinion .sean
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