Upper Body Workout

[Poggy]

Hi all! I'm new to this forum & this is my first post (wooo... amazing)

Anyway i've decided that i'm going to take up martial arts again (probably in June), as i'm currently at college and just can't triain seriously as college takes up most of my time.

Anyway, i've been reading some of the Bruce Lee books, in an attempt to understand some of the philospihy / ideas behind Jeet Kune Do.

Until June time, i'd like to try to get back into shape.

I'd just like to know what advise any of you could give me for getting my upper body into shape (arms, shoulders, chest). I don't want to put on loads of muscle, but i want to be in a better shape than i am now, ready for when i take MA back up.

Thanks,
Dan

 

[TigerWoman]

Just do sets of pushups. We do split pushups for beginners-that helps your inner thigh strength as well. Then when you can do 100 of those, try the plank style regular pushup with your back and legs straight and toes on the floor. Do as many as you can. I couldn't get all the way down to the floor at first. It just takes work. But do them in sets like 10-8-6-4. Then build the first number up. Its the best upper body workout.

Oh, and welcome to the board, Poggy. Good luck in college! TW

 

[Simon Curran]

I agree with Tigerwoman about the push ups, but I would also reccommend hand stand push ups when you are ready for it (start up against a wall in a hand stand, and perform push ups on the vertical)

 

[shesulsa]

Remember dips. You can do these almost anywhere - stabilize your hands at your rump and extend your legs in front of you at the edge of, say, a chair or two or the couch and lower yourself - REALLY good one.

Also pull-ups. If you have anyway to attach a bar to an overhead beam, by all means do and pull yourself up in a variety of ways - hands together, hands apart or single-handed, knuckles facing you or facing away from you. Put variety into it to hit as many different muscle groupings in the upper body as possible.

For forearms, get up there and just hang for as long as you can.

Climb a rope.

 

[still learning]

Hello, Push-up is most likely the best and you can add as much varietions to it as you want to. Most martial arts class do push-ups in the classes as a regular routine. Punching a bag will help to. Borrow a book on boxing. Plyometics in you push-ups is also good too, builds explosive muscles. ....Good luck and do get involve with any martial arts! One step at a time.........Aloha

 

[loki09789]

If your on a college campus, get to the Sports/Exercise Science people and pick up (hopefully for free or at least cheaper than at the local store) some of the surgical tubing for stretch band exercises along with the push up stuff. The department (or a cheap pamphlet from an exercise store - got mine for $5) can recommend some simple upper body exercises that will target the muscles from directions that push ups may not.

Also, since the resistance is variable (length of the stretch, stiffness of the band....) you can do 'hard' workouts or just use it to develop conditioning/endurance with a 'lighter' workout but higher repetitions.

 

[Poggy]

Hi all. Thanks for your replies.

I've started using the push ups & dips.
For the abs, i've started doing crunches & ... lying on my back, raising my head and then raising my leg as high as possible, and then lowering it (keeping it about 2 inchs off the floor when it's been lowered).

I can't wait to get back into martial arts again
Just going to keep working on building up strength & flexibility in the mean time.

 

[howardr]

Hi all. Thanks for your replies.

I've started using the push ups & dips.
For the abs, i've started doing crunches & ... lying on my back, raising my head and then raising my leg as high as possible, and then lowering it (keeping it about 2 inchs off the floor when it's been lowered).

I can't wait to get back into martial arts again
Just going to keep working on building up strength & flexibility in the mean time.

My recommendations (depends on goals, money and time obviously):

Get a "Door Gym," for chin ups and pull ups (also serves as push up handles):
http://www.gymcor.com/doorgym1.html

Get the "Power Pushups 2":
http://www.jumpusa.com/ppushup.htm

Get some Kettlebells (plus the Russian Kettlebell Challenge and From Russia with Tough Love):
http://www.dragondoor.com

The above will be fairly inexpensive and provide you with a varied, total body workout potential, for health and martial arts.

 

[Gin-Gin]

Howdy, Poggy! :wavey: Welcome to Martial Talk, & I'm glad to see you taking advantage of the knowledgeable people from various systems that we have. The only thing I would add to everyone's advice is for flexibility, do 15 minutes of stretches every night; it goes by fast, expecially if you it while watching TV like I do. If you don't remember any particular stretches, just click on my name & send me a private message & I'll be happy to give you a list of some. You'll notice a difference.

Good luck in college & getting back to your Art! :ultracool

Sincerely,
Gin-Gin :asian:

 

[relytjj]

The previous posts cover some simple, good exercises for upper body strength. One thing I used to find difficult was increasing my forearm strength. Forearm curls just weren't cutting it. An exercise I found that really helped me was to get a pipe, bar, rod of some sort (like a broomstick handle, etc.) and tie a rope to it. On the other end of the rope tie a weight. Then start the weight on the ground and the bar shoulder height, arms out and turn the bar pulling the weight up then let it back down (slowly and with control).

Just thought I'd mention this exercise FWIW.

 

[Simon Curran]

The previous posts cover some simple, good exercises for upper body strength. One thing I used to find difficult was increasing my forearm strength. Forearm curls just weren't cutting it. An exercise I found that really helped me was to get a pipe, bar, rod of some sort (like a broomstick handle, etc.) and tie a rope to it. On the other end of the rope tie a weight. Then start the weight on the ground and the bar shoulder height, arms out and turn the bar pulling the weight up then let it back down (slowly and with control).

Just thought I'd mention this exercise FWIW.

That is a really good exercise which I also use.

 

[TCA]

Here is a workout that will show immediate results and improve your cardiovascular as well. As a beginner, perform 10 - 20 pushups at a fast pace, then perform 10-20 crunches (again at fast pace), then do 10 -20 squats. Your upper body should be ready to perform again after the squats. Perform these quickly and with little rest. Complete 5 sets of these. Each week or when comfortable increase by 10 the number of reps. before you know it, you will be doing 5 sets of 60 each. At this point, I promise that you will notice a difference...When this is easy raise your feet on the push-ups!

Again,
5 sets of 10 - 20 (push-ups, crunches, and squats) to be increased by 10 reps per week.

Don't disclude other excercises including sprints...