Body Building without Weights

[Stephen]

Hello

I have been running/jogging more or less on and off for about 23 years now and have never paid much attention to my upper body.

But now as my 39th birthday approaches, I know that the days where you can and eat and drink as you want without servicing the vehicle are over!

So, upper body without weights!

I've always hated weights. I mean REALLY hated weights. I mean....BORING! How can someone sit their and do that stuff is beyond me Anyway, thast just me.

But I know that using your own body weight, maybe someone knows a good workout that can strengthen upper body esp back/abs and shoulders arms?

I can manage about 15 minutes a day on this workout along with my running.

Can anyone have a poke at a routine?

[tobyhede]

Push-Ups
Chin-Ups
Squats
Crunches/Leg Raises

You can vary the hands/grip on both Chins and Push-Ups to target different parts of the muscle.

Ron Jones has a massive list of Body Weight Push-Ups as well as a bunch of other exercises.

Start with what you can do and just keep adding as you progress.

My boxing trainer made me tone down my weights and focus on lots of push-ups and they definitely work! My working sets now consist of something like 80 push-ups in 4 different positions ...

[Lonewolf]

Look up pavel tsatsouline on the internet - he has written a couple of books on bodyweight exercises; but I think the issue is going to be your attitude, because weights offer infinitely more variety than bodyweight alone, the results are also much more dramatic.

[tropicality]

Just thought I'd add a quick bit here. Working out without weights (or at least without doing the normal repetetive repetitions) is a very GOOD idea!

For example: a guy who went to the gym for many years was what you would call a large muscled body builder, and he offered to help my grandpa and father put in a large/heavy window, however because of only lifting weights -- many 'useful' muscles are avoided... needless to say he was unable to lift this window up and over his head into the hole... who would have guessed it.

There are many other examples of this. Your muscles all work together, so unless you work on ALL of them, you may look strong.... but really you might not be... except in the exact movements as you lift weights.

Freeweight movements / body weight workouts are very good for all around strength building.

[Scott Bird]

Stephen, for a few resources you might like to try this post :

Straight to the Bar: The bodyweight guys

A personal favourite which hasn't been mentioned so far is handstand work. Think strong, healthy shoulders.

[SuperStar]

I agree - lifting weights is boring, and as tropicality says, not always as productive as it seems.

My vote goes to yoga! One of the main things that I love about going to yoga classes is that you feel like you really both flex and stretch every muscle in your whole body, and in all different synergistic combinations. I think that's where the sort of "high" that people talk about comes from. It truly is a full-body workout, and the stretching that is so important is included in the same workout. The symmetry, the grace, what can I say - I'm hooked.

I know you said you only have 15 minutes... but, well, maybe go to a once a week class for an hour and do your own session daily with what you learn in class for your 15 min/day.

[Seraph]

Hi,

I got some excellent information on bodyweight training from RossTraining - Bridging The Gap Between Ordinary and Extraordinary

Regards,
Seraph.

[Milo Riano]

Originally Posted by SuperStar

I agree - lifting weights is boring, and as tropicality says, not always as productive as it seems.

My vote goes to yoga! One of the main things that I love about going to yoga classes is that you feel like you really both flex and stretch every muscle in your whole body, and in all different synergistic combinations. I think that's where the sort of "high" that people talk about comes from. It truly is a full-body workout, and the stretching that is so important is included in the same workout. The symmetry, the grace, what can I say - I'm hooked.

I know you said you only have 15 minutes... but, well, maybe go to a once a week class for an hour and do your own session daily with what you learn in class for your 15 min/day.

It depends on the environment man. I work out at Golds Gym and have managed to make lots of friends who are very successful professionals from lawyers, IT people, business man, etc. I learn a lot from them and enjoy going to the gym lifting weights. Not to mention the beauty of expanding your network.

Also, it is fun working out seeing very beautiful and toned girls. Hmm, for this part just ignore me man.

[Milo Riano]

For the bodyweights, check out the physical training of the Marines, we use to do that during our citizens army training in high schools which was part of our academe. Unbelievably we all became very strong and toned.

It also doesn't hurt doing the conventional push-ups (open and close arms), pull-ups, sit-ups. I remember we would do around 500 each of those during our army training every saturdays as I belong to the model cadet group. Man, we were really strong when we engaged in sports like basketball or soccer.

[ahimel]

Shovelglove: The Sledgehammer Workout

[Adam Sargant]

For non-weights try isometric workouts... or have you thought about alternating your running with swiming?

In love and light

Adam

[Adam]

Ohhh, this can be fun...

Let me see, as for upper-body, there are all sorts of push-ups.

Regular push-ups, which are pretty self-explanatory.
Elevated push-ups, put your feet on a chair.
Vertical push-ups, put your feet against a wall and your hands no more than two feet away from the base of that wall.
Deep push-ups, use three chairs, one to support your feet, and one for each hand... When going down, go past where the ground should be.
Superman push-ups, start with your butt in the air, arch down so that your chest brushes the ground between your hands, then continue forward so that your head is up, but your hips are almost touching the ground... then reverse the motion to complete one repetition.
Wide arm push-ups, just like regular, except that your arms are further out.
Close hand push-ups, same, except closer. Usually at least the thumbs touch.
Diamonds, your thumbs and forefingers touch.
Diamonds you can afford (on a soldier's budget, at least, since that's where I heard of these), thumbs and fingers completely overlapping, so that you can't fit a one ct. diamond between them.
Four man push-ups, get three adventurous, foolhardy jocks and have them lay down, face down, to form a square, so that the feet of each person is on the shoulders (!!not neck or middle back!!) of another person... then, carefully timed, everyone does a push up at the same time. This effectively doubles the weight of a regular push-up, though it depends more on the coordination of your buddies as to whether you can do one successfully or not. Any attempts to do thise close handed will almost certainly fail.
Clapping push-ups. When going up, push with enough force to propell your upper body off the ground, and while momentum is still supporting you, clap once. Great for showing off.
Any of these, except the diamonds and clapping push-ups, can be done with closed fists, which helps to develop the lower arms more, but your knuckles will be hurting until you get used to it.

Non-push-up, upper body:
Overhead arm clap: Start with your arms horizontal, palms up, and simply clap above your head. With each repetition, work on keeping your arms as straight as possible (someone with a big head like mine is allowed to bend their arms at the last moment so that they can actually clap ), and keep the arms as close to horizontal as possible when you're starting each new repetition.
Not sure of the name: Simply hold your arms out horizontally for as long as you can. It burns. For showing off, grab some heavy hammers and hold those out while a friend times you... then try to get him to match your time.
Cherry pickers: Arms horizontal, simply open and close your hands. It burns faster.
Small circles: Arms horizontal, circle your arms, either backwards or forwards, keeping the circle no more than a foot in diameter. It relieves the burn of cherry pickers, but quickly adds its own burn.

Abs:
Sit-ups: Make certain that you have good padding.
Crunches: Most people don't do these effectively. Hold your muscles tight for at least three seconds per rep.
Flutter kicks: I absolutely loathe these. Laying flat on your back, raise your feet about 6 inches off the ground, then raise one foot while lowering the other... alternate... keep going until you can't stand the burn, then push yourself even farther. Don't go too fast, because exercising is for your bennefit, remember?

Most of the other abdominal (abominable?) exercises are much easier to show than explain... If you want a good ab workout, try doing sit-ups on a slope with your head downhill.

[peter]

Try Slow Speed Strength:
from fitdj.com site:

Strength-training done in s-l-o-w motion-10 seconds to lift each weight, then another 10 seconds to lower it. Working so slowly is tough: You’re unable to use any momentum to make it easier to lift the weights. Each exercise is performed until muscle “failure,” which happens quickly: Slow speed strength training is so challenging, you can only do three to five repetitions of each exercise before moving on the next.

If you have iTunes, check out the "My Pod Bod" podcast by Stin (just search for Stin)... it has a video demonstration of the movements... very nice... and also has some music for workout... free of charge.

[Mitalp]

Stephen,

Here's something I used to do back in H.S:

Jumping Jacks
Push ups
Sit ups
Just Jump up and Down

Now the way you do this is continously one after the other in the above order. Start with a set of 10 and work you way down to 1.

Quick excercise, but def. works.

[Blaine Moore]

For myself, I really like doing the whole weights thing. As has been mentioned, though, you want to use multiple muscle groups together and avoid machines if you want to get real strength. The only machines I ever use are things coming off of a pulley; most exercises I do are either body weight, dumbell or barbell.

One piece of equipment that I suggest that you get is a swiss ball. There are a lot of exercises that you can do with one that work things differently than just laying on the floor. If you are sitting or laying on one, you can do most exercises such as crunches or bridges or bridges with a knee tuck on them. This will work not only the muscles targetted by the exercise, but also your stabilising and support muscles that have to keep you from rolling around.

Other good exercises could be supine hip extensions and leg raises with a swiss ball grasped between your knees.

[Lonewolf]

There is nothing that will cause greater physical changes in the body faster or more dramatically than weights. You will find increased vitality on a level different from running, a much greater sense of confidence and focused positive aggression.
If you think it is boring that is because you are focusing on the negative aspects. You see repetition, I see continuous challenge and development. I never feel bored, actually I feel excited even anticipating going to the gym. That is why I say work on the attitude to exercise first, because probably you will find it causing you barriers in whatever form your workout takes.

[kiosan]

I am doing exercises like you every day
I wrote post about this here

[DQueens]

for your upper body: swimming!

[Jerry K]

You can definitely get a great upper body from the Power to the People workouts or some basic calisthenics but I would suggest you give a 2 week try to a simple yoga routine, you can do it at home. You can get details & directions on these from a quaified teacher, book, video, or internet. Try six sun salutation A, followed by six sun salutation B, followed by 15 breaths in "uprooting/utpluthith" pose. You may find it difficult to get into full locust for uprooting if you run, but maybe you won't. Add one breath each day to uprooting. Spend 3 to 5 minutes in Shavasana (corpse pose) - essential! Trust me this routine will work your upper body. If you don't dig it, try something else!

[Lonewolf]

The only trouble is that no matter how much yoga you do, you will still be a skinny hippie at the end of it.

[rossio]

One body weight exercise I really like is kinda like an upside down push up for your back (I think the back gets neglected in a lot of workouts).

What you do is (hmm how to explain this), have your chin up bar about a meter off the floor. Then lay down underneath it as if you are about to bench press it with a fairly wide grip. Then put your feet up on a chair or bench at a similar height - and then literally just pull yourself up so that your chest reaches the bar.

Does that make sense?

Hmm, maybe not. I will try and find a picture!

It is a great exercise though!

Ross

[stephencp]

One of the best exercises for your stomach is without weights. Just sit on the floor with your legs together straight out in front of you. Put your hands on the floor right next to your hips. Now lift your butt, legs and feet off the floor and hold. Some people can go several minutes, some can't get thier heels off the floor....

Stephen
Power-Book Library: Free personal development, success, inspiration and motivational classics
Personality and Growth Bookshelf

[Lonewolf]

That's a great idea if you are gay and worried about the tightness of your butt.

[SuperStar]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

The only trouble is that no matter how much yoga you do, you will still be a skinny hippie at the end of it.

True, and everyone knows that skinny hippies have tiny dicks compared to big bulky sexy Lonewolfs. But yoga does in fact "strengthen upper body esp back/abs and shoulders arms", as was requested by the thread starter.

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

That's a great idea if you are gay and worried about the tightness of your butt.

Dude, chicks dig a tight ass just as much as a gay guy does. In truth the bottom line is that there is something for everyone. I have a "skinny" body, but it is nicely toned I get compliments. I had a hot girl in one of my classes the other day raise her hand and say "I like a guy with a big belly. I think it's cute."

Only gay people lift their legs off the floor? Please, open your mind a little bit.

[Lonewolf]

I was making ironic remaks about the value of aerobic and flexibility type exercises that women do to "firm up their tums, bums and thighs" ;for men interested in seriously strengthening their bodies.
Also, your focus is clearly on how you look rather than how strong you are - which is clearly a feminine activity. My advice to you all is stop behaving like a bunch of airline stewards, don't worry about your butt or tummy and focus on becoming a strong man.
If you want women to be sexually attracted to you it is going to be primarily because of your physical confidence - your pride in knowing that you are strong and worthy enough. Girls hate a man that is insecure and whiney especially about his apprearance. If you are like this then CHANGE because evolution is weeding you out!

[SuperStar]

I'm not trying to start a flame war. I swear. I hope I come off as calm and civil as I'm trying to be.

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

for men interested in seriously strengthening their bodies.

I guess my view on this point is that I'd rather have a body that is strong yet manuverable, rather than bulky and strong(er?). Being leaner and more flexible, you can take bigger strides thus run faster, weigh less so you can jump, climb, etc better. I learn to use the different synergistic muscle groups for balance and grace, rather than sheer strength in certain specific muscles. I guess it would depend on the lifestyle, but for me, I don't often need to lift, carry, etc heavy things. More often I am in my own body moving through the world and would like to have the agility and strength to carry my own body in whatever way necessary, no more, no less.

And if I can carry my own body weight balanced on my hands, I can also hold up my end of the couch when moving time comes.

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

Also, your focus is clearly on how you look rather than how strong you are - which is clearly a feminine activity.

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

...you will still be a skinny hippie at the end of it.

I guess I thought you were focusing on looks when you mentioned the "skinny hippie" thing. Maybe I missed your point.

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

My advice to you all is stop behaving like a bunch of airline stewards, don't worry about your butt or tummy and focus on becoming a strong man.

Right, gotcha. So it's not about sexual orientation any more, it's about certain career choices that makes you care about your "butt or tummy." Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but the gluteus muscles and the abdominals are some of the biggest and most important muscle groups in the human body, so how is that not focusing on becoming strong?

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

If you want women to be sexually attracted to you it is going to be primarily because of your physical confidence - your pride in knowing that you are strong and worthy enough.

I agree. It's about the confidence. But I disagree that it's primarily the physical confidence. Maybe that's where we disconnect. I don't feel the need to be stronger than is practical. I do feel that women generally are more interested in power and confidence than in any particular physical appearance. But that's a thread in the "relationships" section.

[smallstar]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

I was making ironic remaks about the value of aerobic and flexibility type exercises that women do to "firm up their tums, bums and thighs" ;for men interested in seriously strengthening their bodies.
Also, your focus is clearly on how you look rather than how strong you are - which is clearly a feminine activity. My advice to you all is stop behaving like a bunch of airline stewards, don't worry about your butt or tummy and focus on becoming a strong man.

In the long run, aerobics is better for your lungs and heart than weight training, so you're going to live longer. It also increases your endurance, flexibility, coordination and affects more muscle groups at once than weight training does. In addition, it's great fun, and for the heterosexual man there is the bonus of 5:1 to 20:1 sex ratio.

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

If you want women to be sexually attracted to you it is going to be primarily because of your physical confidence - your pride in knowing that you are strong and worthy enough. Girls hate a man that is insecure and whiney especially about his apprearance. If you are like this then CHANGE because evolution is weeding you out!

Öyh äyh ähä ähä öh. Äläs nyt innostu liikaa.

As many PUA's have stated, you don't need physical strength to do successful pick-ups. This means that you can train whatever aspect of your body you like to (if any at all), and still get lucky.

[Lonewolf]

I can't believe that smallstar has resorted to writing Finnish to me .There are some things one should never do no matter how angry one gets.

By physical confidence I am referring to masculine presence rather than a higher than average strength level. If you are weedy but flexible and when you walk in the room most guys automatically assume they can kick your ass, then you will never understand what I am talking about.
It's a myth that weights make you less flexible - Many exercises actually increase flexibility eg. deep squats, dumbell bench presses, stiff leg deadlifts; strength athletes generally stretch as part of the training in any case.
There is a big difference between a body that is aerobically fit and one that is physically powerful and a big difference in the way that such a person holds themselfves. If you only have an interest in aerobics then it is like riding a scooter and refusing ever to get on a real motorbike.
As for the guys in the girls aerobic's class - unless you are trying to be the perfect gay friend then I really doubt the girls are going to respect you much.

[CeciL]

Try swimming. It will broaden your shoulders and chest without weights.

However, if want to get "buff" weights are it. Preferably free weights, they work your balance muscles as well as your target muscles so you get useful strength instead of just bulk as gym equipment tends to do as the exercise is too focused. Try some heavy music and you will be slamming those weights around in no time and don't forget to eat a lot of protein.

[joanmhe]

You guys are funny - I don't think most women find guys with bulky muscles all that attractive.
I did have a gay yoga teacher once... I think it took me a year to figure out why there were so many guys in his classes.
Stephen you sound like many runners - I was researching some stretching and exercises on a site once where the author made the recommendations, then noted that it would be difficult to get most runners to spend the time doing these exercises instead of running.
The current thought is that adding strength training to a running workout will result in fewer injuries in the long run - something a 39 yo should consider. For women, it is supposed to increase the amount of weight loss as well.

A surefire way to get superfit that was never boring is to rock climb 2-3 times a week, but it takes more than 15 minutes.
Have fun!
Joan