Workouts to improve upper body strength?

[stingrae]

Uph (Hip Bridge and Roll)
Hip Escape (Shrimping)
Both use the legs and core to move the hips. Arms are for framing and maintaining the opponent's position while moving the hips. So strength is required but it is more the legs and core than the arms.

Bridge and roll, that's my issue. I can't do it unless I wrap my legs around the other person's and pull. I've been out of the dojo too long, I couldn't think of the escape.

 

[stingrae]

Put your feet on your bed, place you hands on the floor, do elevated push ups. You won't build mass or size this way but you will tone and strengthen. This is also good for maintenance of muscle mass.

Make sure you are eating right too.

That's a good start to regular pushups isn't it? I can't do one regular pushup.Someone told me to start on my knees or elevated and progress from there.

 

[stingrae]

If your upper body is weak, chances are your lower body is too. Here's a general calisthenics routine:

5 sets of squats to failure
5 sets of pushups to failure
5 sets of sit-ups to failure
5 sets of dips to failure
5 sets of pull-ups to failure
5 sets of lunges to failure
5 sets of handstand push-ups to failure

Should take about 45 minutes to complete. If it takes more than 1 hour it means you are going way too slow.

You can do this 3-6 days a week.

Each week try to do 5 more reps for each set than the week before.

You can do pull-ups at the park.

Handstand? What am I, a gymnist?

 

[jobo]

That's a good start to regular pushups isn't it? I can't do one regular pushup.Someone told me to start on my knees or elevated and progress from there.

start well elivated, on counter or something like that and do as many as you can aim for say 50 plus when you can do that with ease, drop the height and build up again and then again and again till you find yourself on the floor doing 20
push ups should have your hands at chest level, with you elbows pointing backwards, not as some insist on doing them, at shoulder level with you elbows pointing outwards'.
they are easier the correct way as they get
you pecs more involved

 

[Gerry Seymour]

start well elivated, on counter or something like that and do as many as you can aim for say 50 plus when you can do that with ease, drop the height and build up again and then again and again till you find yourself on the floor doing 20

I've never really thought about this as a natural progression before.

Or, wait...I think you're talking about the other incline (as was the person the OP referred to). IB referred to having the feet elevated. I presume you're talking about the head being elevated. I was typing a longer question for you, then realized I was following from IB's post, and might not be the same thing as you're talking about.

 

[jobo]

I've never really thought about this as a natural progression before.

Or, wait...I think you're talking about the other incline (as was the person the OP referred to). IB referred to having the feet elevated. I presume you're talking about the head being elevated. I was typing a longer question for you, then realized I was following from IB's post, and might not be the same thing as you're talking about.

yea, that's how I did it, build up the endurance aspect and then increase the weight. As a rule of thumb, you are lifting about 65% of your body weight with a standard push up. There are charts available to show what % you are lifting at various elevation's, if anyone is Interested enough to google it

 

[drop bear]

You should be able to get a plate pretty cheaply. And can do a lot with one.

 

[gerardbu07059]

You can also try :
1 push ups. Do sets until you can get to 100 push up straight. As you get stronger you can use 3 chairs. One for hands one for legs
2 dips: for triceps you can use 3 chairs one for the legs and the other 2 together so you can put your hands palms facing away from you.
3: planks. Core. Work up until you can do 2 minutes
4: sit ups or crunches. As you advance do crunch twisted putting opposite elbow to the knees. Do 2 slowly and 3 quick until you can do 3 sets of ten counting
5: pull ups as someone suggested work up until you can do 30. Start doing them in sets with. Count them as different exercises 1 is with hands away from you and one with hands facing you.
6: horse stand work up until you can do 2 minutes.
7: chair: put your back against the wall and imagine sitting on a chair but no chair (good for quads). Until you can do 5 minutes.
8: lounges: do not let your knees pass your toes. You should do 50 on each leg
Plus the other good suggestions from members here. This just gives you a routine that you can follow.


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[gerardbu07059]

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[DanT]

Handstand? What am I, a gymnist?

You can do it with your feet on the ground. Do a push-up while in a downward dog position.

 

[drop bear]

Handstand? What am I, a gymnist?

No. But with work you could be.

 

[jobo]

You can also try :
1 push ups. Do sets until you can get to 100 push up straight. As you get stronger you can use 3 chairs. One for hands one for legs
2 dips: for triceps you can use 3 chairs one for the legs and the other 2 together so you can put your hands palms facing away from you.
3: planks. Core. Work up until you can do 2 minutes
4: sit ups or crunches. As you advance do crunch twisted putting opposite elbow to the knees. Do 2 slowly and 3 quick until you can do 3 sets of ten counting
5: pull ups as someone suggested work up until you can do 30. Start doing them in sets with. Count them as different exercises 1 is with hands away from you and one with hands facing you.
6: horse stand work up until you can do 2 minutes.
7: chair: put your back against the wall and imagine sitting on a chair but no chair (good for quads). Until you can do 5 minutes.
8: lounges: do not let your knees pass your toes. You should do 50 on each leg
Plus the other good suggestions from members here. This just gives you a routine that you can follow.


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there are no strengh gains from doing a hundred push ups, its long since stopped being a,strengh exercises and become an endurance one

. There is nothing wrong with that but the op wants to be strong. And that's found by working in the range between 80 and 90%of one rep max. Or some where between 5 and 15 rep per set to failure. If you have got to the point where you can wiz up to 20 reps its to easy and you need to modify the exercise to make it mote difficult. You can do that by changing tempo, I find fast up to activate the type one fibres and slow down is good.

I've recently stated doing archer push ups, ie moving one of your arms out to the side. I move it just to the point where I can do just five reps with each arm. That put me back at about 90% of one rep max and should give max strength gains

 

[Midnight-shadow]

there are no strengh gains from doing a hundred push ups, its long since stopped being a,strengh exercises and become an endurance one

. There is nothing wrong with that but the op wants to be strong. And that's found by working in the range between 80 and 90%of one rep max. Or some where between 5 and 15 rep per set to failure. If you have got to the point where you can wiz up to 20 reps its to easy and you need to modify the exercise to make it mote difficult. You can do that by changing tempo, I find fast up to activate the type one fibres and slow down is good.

I've recently stated doing archer push ups, ie moving one of your arms out to the side. I move it just to the point where I can do just five reps with each arm. That put me back at about 90% of one rep max and should give max strength gains

*gasps* you mean 1-punch man was lieing to me all this time!? I thought all I had to do to gain super human strength (and lose all my hair) was to do 100 pushups 100 situps 100 squats and a 10k run every day. Now all my dreams are ruined

 

[kuniggety]

Handstand? What am I, a gymnist?

It's easier to do a hand stand and then balance against a wall. I can't for the life of me do a real handstand.

I've recently stated doing archer push ups, ie moving one of your arms out to the side. I move it just to the point where I can do just five reps with each arm. That put me back at about 90% of one rep max and should give max strength gains

Is there any advantage of the archer pushups over just doing one arm pushups?

*gasps* you mean 1-punch man was lieing to me all this time!? I thought all I had to do to gain super human strength (and lose all my hair) was to do 100 pushups 100 situps 100 squats and a 10k run every day. Now all my dreams are ruined

Well, that sounds like a pretty good warm up to me.

 

[Ironbear24]

That's a good start to regular pushups isn't it? I can't do one regular pushup.Someone told me to start on my knees or elevated and progress from there.

No elevated makes it more difficult. The more the elevate the more you will also work the shoulders as well. There is also a technique called light weight slow reps. I have a link here if you would like to read it.

Since you don't know your 1 rep max don't worry about the calculation, just take a dumbell that you have a hard time lifting once, then go to a lighter one you can lift many times. Then do 9 reps of those dumbells very slowly, like taichi forms practice slow. Slow push ups are also good.

Blast Off To A New Level Of Mass With Light Training!

 

[KangTsai]

Push-ups alone get you a long way. Since I don't have a pull up bar either, I try sneak pull ups in the playground and on ledges and school.

 

[jobo]

It's easier to do a hand stand and then balance against a wall. I can't for the life of me do a real handstand.



Is there any advantage of the archer pushups over just doing one arm pushups?



Well, that sounds like a pretty good warm up to me.

its not easy for you there is a barrage of info, most coming from the same place, some just silly

the basic principal of strengh training is adaption by progressive over load, progressive over load is easy in a gym you just put more weight on, with body weight you need to try a bit harder, by juggling volume(how much weight you lift in total or number of reps) and intensity, how heavy it is, or how hard you make it if your doing fast or slow.

but the principal with push ups, would be to start light, by leaning on a counter and do lots of volume to get the muscle working and start the adaptation process, then as you get better, come down in height(which increases the intensity) but do lower reps.work your way down in volume and up in intensity. Till you are doing proper push ups at say 10 reps and build to do say 5 sets of these.
then the problem is that as you are just doing the same exercises over again, the strengh gains,stop.

so you need to make it harder again, so you can elivate your feet, go very fast or very slow or do one of the many push up variations' like archer push up or diamond push ups.

you want to make it difficult enough that you cant get above say 20 reps and when you can dp an easy 20 make it more difficult so you are back to 5or 8 again.
that way to are specifically developing strengh rather than endurance

nb archer push ups are a good bit easier than one armed push ups, not just on the arms, but particularly on the core muscles, that need to be very strong to stop you tipping over

 

[CB Jones]

Try doing pushups using chairs. You use three chairs, one for each hand and one for your feet and the idea is to go lower than your hands. With the chairs you can go lower than if you were just doing pushups on the ground. And them come up as far as you can. A very good exercise for upper body strength.

doesnt going below your hands cause shoulder injuries. I think that is a no no.

I agree with Jobo. Some really great kettle bell workouts on the web. And you don't need that many just a few.

 

[kuniggety]

nb archer push ups are a good bit easier than one armed push ups, not just on the arms, but particularly on the core muscles, that need to be very strong to stop you tipping over

Thanks and, yeah, I always feel weird popping and cracking all over my body when I'm doing one armed push-ups from the core strain.

 

[wingchun100]

Part of my problems escaping pins comes from little to no upper body strength. Any workouts you guys can recommend to help me out?

I can't go to a gym so I won't be using machines and I don't have a pullup bar. I may be able to scrape up some cash to get some of those colorful hand weights you can buy at a sports store.

No pull-up bar? I got a solution for that because in my apartment, none of the doorways are sturdy enough for me to do pull-ups. Here's what I do:

Take two dumbbells and lean over at the waist. Hold the dumbbells with my palms facing toward me, and then lift. It's kind of like a row. The one downfall to this is that when you do a pull-up on the bar, you are lifting all your body weight. Unless I could find 200-lb. dumbbells, I'll never be able to get the same effect with the exercise I just described.

HOWEVER, there is one little nuance I discovered last night that makes up for it: do this dumbbell exercise in an eccentric fashion. What do I mean...do the exercise in a weird way? NO! Not that kind of "eccentric." What it means is when you pull the dumbbells up, you EXPLODE UP, but when they descend, you let.........them.........down.......slllllllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwlllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. This gave me one hell of a sore back the next day, so I know it works.