Exercises for upper body strength?

[Goals]

Hello people, i want to become muscle on my upper body and i was wondering what i should do everyday and how long it'l take me roughly? How much i should go up and what exercises every day and hopefully how to do them would be extremely good.

 

 

 

Thanks in advance,

 

goals.

[StrOwez]

google free workout routines.

[mrmyk]

You don't really need visible muscle to be strong :P Just try doing push ups and dumbells at your house as a mininum and try to go to the gym. Remember to do cardio as well.

[andufusthebronze]

You don't really need visible muscle to be strong :P Just try doing push ups and dumbells at your house as a mininum and try to go to the gym. Remember to do cardio as well.

 

yup.

 

 

 

But, if you want abdominal (torso) muscle aswell, sit ups are very good for it.

[deloriagod]

Here's what I do -with a machine built to handle all-:

 

 

 

Bench press

 

Incline bench press (military press)

 

Decline bench press

 

Bicep curl

 

Tricep extension

 

Leteral pull down

 

 

 

3 sets of 8 reps of each. I have the weight so I can only get in the 8 reps before I have to stop. If you want to built muscle be sure you work out every other day, not every day.

 

 

 

Other exercises that will help:

 

 

 

Sit-ups/crunches

 

Push-ups

 

 

 

Just do as many of those as you can. They'll help define muscles and girls love a six-pack ;)

[assassin_696]

For god's sake don't just work on your upper body.

 

 

 

But for upper body workouts, focus on pectoral chest muscles, delts (shoulders), traps (more shoulders) and your upper and lower back as well as your abdominals.

 

 

 

For your pectorals (assuming you do free weights where possible) do:

 

• Dumbell press
   
  Incline dumbell press
   
  Dumbell flys

 

 

 

For your delts and back do:

 

• Side raises
   
  Front raises
   
  Bent-over side raises

 

 

 

For your back do:

 

• Lateral pulldowns
   
  Widegrip pullups
   
  Upright rows

 

 

 

For your traps do:

 

• Shrugs
   
  Dumbell shoulder presses
   
  

 

And for your abs do weighted crunches, preferably using a swiss-ball.

 

 

 

For all these exercises make sure your form is near to perfect, and then work out what weights you can use. After a thorough warmup, try and do 8 reps at 80% of your weight, 6 reps at 90% and 4 at 100% for muscle building. So for example if you're doing dumbell presses do 8 reps at 18kg, 6 reps at 20kg and 4 reps at 22kg. Or something like that, you get the idea.

 

 

 

For anymore info see http://www.bodybuilding.com

[darkmage099]

Nice alt.

 

 

 

 

 

Pump Iron.

[Rebdragon]

And for your abs do weighted crunches, preferably using a swiss-ball.

 

Always hated doing weighted crunches; I never felt like I got anywhere with them in the past.

 

 

 

For abs I prefer leg lifts. They're difficult I believe, so they're not great to start on, but they're great ab training.

 

 

 

Here's a paragraph from a good ab training site about leg lifting:

 

Do you work the abdominals when performing those hanging leg lifts from a chin-up bar?

 

Although the hip flexors are the prime movers in bringing the legs up toward the chest in this movement, the abdominals are statically (no movement) contracting in this exercise. Several studies demonstrate conclusively the involvement of the abdominal muscles in this skill (Flint & Gudgell, 1965; Guimaraes, Auerlio, Campos, & Marantes, 1991; Gutin & Lipetz, 1971). In the hanging leg lift, the rectus abdominis must rotate the pelvis posteriorly and stabilize the pelvis to allow the legs to move freely toward the chest. Since the legs are relatively heavy, the strain on the rectus abdominis is due largely to its role in stabilizing the pelvis. This exercise is quite strenuous for many individuals. Doing this exercise with straight legs places a heavy load on the lumbar spine, making this a ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâ¦Ã¢â¬Åhigh riskÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬ÃâÃ

[martinisback]

Bench press would help..as well as many other machines which you probably dont have (so you should sign up at a gym!:) } like shoulder press, etc.

[flying_death_bombs55]

I have 10 pound weights at home(they are actually 11 pounds but labelled 10 pounds...) and I use them every day(curls) then I go to the gym and use the upper body exercise machines.

[ember3579]

I got 2 words for you: wearable weights. There's armbands, legbands, and vests out there, maybe more. Wear them constantly, every day, and if you do that on top of your normal routine, you'll be stronger in no time. You know how alot of people whine about how heavy things are? Won't seem like sh** if you got 100+ pounds of weight on you every second of the day. Take them off, and you're like a living Mac truck. I'm not sure, but depending on how they do the vest, it can even act like a body armor. It's kinda hard to punch a hole through 50+ pounds of iron with ANYTHING, save for military-grade firearms and better. You'll need to start off small at first, then build up. Get another 15-30 pounds every 2 weeks. TRUST ME, it helps. Even if you never set foot in a weight training room in your LIFE, this will help. \

[Rebdragon]

I got 2 words for you: wearable weights. There's armbands, legbands, and vests out there, maybe more. Wear them constantly, every day, and if you do that on top of your normal routine, you'll be stronger in no time. You know how alot of people whine about how heavy things are? Won't seem like sh** if you got 100+ pounds of weight on you every second of the day. Take them off, and you're like a living Mac truck. I'm not sure, but depending on how they do the vest, it can even act like a body armor. It's kinda hard to punch a hole through 50+ pounds of iron with ANYTHING, save for military-grade firearms and better. You'll need to start off small at first, then build up. Get another 15-30 pounds every 2 weeks. TRUST ME, it helps. Even if you never set foot in a weight training room in your LIFE, this will help. \

 

I've considered doing something like that, but I've never been sure about the medical implications of jumping up a couple dozen pounds in a day, with that weight focused in only one part of your body, constantly. I considered it mainly for my ankles- having more weight on my legs would be good for getting better at Tricking. Still, I've had my doubts about the practicality of it, as I've never hear of it ever being used in real life. Do any, er, "professional" body builders, or biologists, or just experts, have any insight into this method of training the body? Does it really help at all once you take them off and leave 'em off for an extended period of time? No offense, but it doesn't even sound like you've even tried this, so I'd like some better personal and medical advice on the idea :| .

 

 

 

And adding 30 pounds is enough, adding 100 pounds is suicide. I don't care how tough one thinks they are, unless they're some kind of hardcore 400-pound lifting bodybuilder, is it all that intelligient to go through your daily life like that? Major pain on the body, could possibly even overstress you, and that's not even considering the fact that'd it just make life much harder in general.

 

 

 

I've carried around 50+ pound backpacks. Makes life painful. Very painful. You're suggesting that one reach that weight in possibly only a month, and continue adding weight from there. Uh, no please :| .

 

 

 

So ya, advice needed, especially on wearing 10, maybe 15 pound legbands, as that's something I might try.

[Randox]

bout the wearable weights. Be careful how much you use. If your wearing them all day this is going to put major strain on your spine to the point where you can stunt your growth, grow shorter faster (because you grow shorter with age, the disks in your back stop expanding at night), chronic back pain. If the weigths are porly balenced back to front and sides, you are going to be in ALOT of pain for a LONG LONG time.

 

 

 

This also puts strain on the knees, which are alredy pretty delacate and prone to problems later in life. An exra 30-40 pounds 8 hours a day could do serious damage to teh lining of the knee joint.

 

 

 

And your FEET. If you have high arches like me, this is just an incredibly stupid idea. Thats a 1 way roaud to chronic pain and plantars faceites(cant spell it, its a foot problem). This will put strain on teh ankle and damage it like the knees, it could also lead to strain on the arch and ball leading to swollen tendons in the bottom of your foot, and trust me, when they get irritated and go into spasam, you will be on the ground praying to God the pain ends soon. I get that pain sometimes just pointing my foot, I have incredibly high arches where all the skin clears the ground by 2/3 of a centimetre.

 

 

 

If you go for this, please consult some dort of doctor, and I would not recomend more than 15-25 lbs. no matter how much you can carry. Your going to be wearing them hours at a time, so it takes MUCH LESS weight to do MUCH MORE damage. Things like the ankle and wrist weights at least are far safer than heavy torso weights. And make sure you don't go for any weighted hats. Your neck mucells work much different than normal mussels and alredy strong enough. Any weigth training would only damage them and cause you pain, it would likely cause you to stop before you made progress. A human skull with brain is alredy 10 lbs. (give or take a pound), thats enough.

 

 

 

Good Luck.

[Rebdragon]

And your FEET. If you have high arches like me, this is just an incredibly stupid idea. Thats a 1 way roaud to chronic pain and plantars faceites(cant spell it, its a foot problem). This will put strain on teh ankle and damage it like the knees, it could also lead to strain on the arch and ball leading to swollen tendons in the bottom of your foot, and trust me, when they get irritated and go into spasam, you will be on the ground praying to God the pain ends soon. I get that pain sometimes just pointing my foot, I have incredibly high arches where all the skin clears the ground by 2/3 of a centimetre.

 

 

 

If you go for this, please consult some dort of doctor, and I would not recomend more than 15-25 lbs. no matter how much you can carry. Your going to be wearing them hours at a time, so it takes MUCH LESS weight to do MUCH MORE damage. Things like the ankle and wrist weights at least are far safer than heavy torso weights.

 

 

 

Good Luck.

 

Thanks for the info. I don't have high arches, and I've been training my leg muscles for over a decade, so I hope I can handle ankle weights without medical problems (I'll probably try 15's). It'd be great for training -getting a front flip with weight on means that I can do a real one much more fluently- and hopefully it'll feel like going moving to a lower gravitational force whenever I need to take them off.

 

 

 

So, I'll see if I'd be able to use 'em, and thanks for the info again :P .

[Chocobodude0]

Dumbell curls, Inclined dumbell lifts, Dips (find somethign like a bench, strech your arms backwards and grab onto it. Then take your legs out as far as you can, and start dipping your body, it's an awesome workout that works out nearly everywhere), medicine ball push-ups (do push-ups while holding onto a medicine ball in one hand, hard as all hell but really worth it, and be sure to alternate between hands) are some of my best ones.

 

 

 

Also, I don't advise working out just your upper body. That'll make your body unbalanced, which sn't very good. You should also do back workouts (stuff like medicineball squats work well), corte workouts (My favorite since ladies love the 6 pack :D , crunches, leg lifts, sit-ups [though you can really hurt your back doin' these, which is why I would advise cruneches more], et) Leg workouts ( Calf-lifting, step-ups, even simpel stuff liek jogging, gotta have joggin' in any workout :P ), etc.

 

 

 

It's much more beneficial to work out your entire body because it'll just make you stronger as a person. Not to mention it's be kinda weird to see some guy with totaly ripped Biceps, triceps, etc. but no 6-pack and some skinny legs. :P

[T-Roach]

shut up and squat

[Rahila]

at home with no equipment, do push ups, sit ups, crunches (whatever gives u an abdominal workout)...not many other options, get a membership to a local gym. I go to mine everyday except for in my golf team's season

[Zonorhc]

Contact your local SCA, have them gear you up with some leather armour, a shield and a wooden sword, and then try to fight some of them.

 

 

 

You'll get your muscle. Fast. It won't be as toned as you might want to show off to the ladies, but it'll be there.

[Poopingman]

Do whatever you want, but don't be too one dimensional, focusing only on your arms-chest. Wayyy too many topheavy guys at the gym that have these tiny little legs, a fat gut, and big arms. Looks stupid.

[T-Roach]

Do whatever you want, but don't be too one dimensional, focusing only on your arms-chest. Wayyy too many topheavy guys at the gym that have these tiny little legs, a fat gut, and big arms. Looks stupid.

 

 

 

whats wrong with dem benchNcurls <3

[Futurama]

the fastest way to upper body strength; whey protein shakes, high carb meals, and tonnes of push ups with your arms in different positions on the floor (towards top of chest, further apart lengthways, further down your chest, etc.) Yes, this is true, my friends train with the RAF and this is the fastest way to upper body strength. However, it's not the right way as such, and you shoudl definately keep fit and vary your exercises rather than do this. :)

[yomom1919]

I also have a question for you all: Can you do crunches and pushups daily? or only every other day just like weights?

[Led-Zeppelin]

Eat heaps of protein, push ups, pull ups, dumbells. Get a boxing bag too.

 

 

 

And how old are you if you don't mind me asking? Doing too much weights at a young age can screw with your body.

[runescapeloser22]

I also have a question for you all: Can you do crunches and pushups daily? or only every other day just like weights?

 

I'm wondering that too, because I don't have any access to any equipment, and I'm planning on taking working out without equipment seriously. Also if I'm 13 years old and weigh 85-90 pounds about how many pushups/crunches should I do a day? My friend said 500 crunches/100 pushup a day, not sure if hes right.

[yomom1919]

I'm wondering that too, because I don't have any access to any equipment, and I'm planning on taking working out without equipment seriously. Also if I'm 13 years old and weigh 85-90 pounds about how many pushups/crunches should I do a day? My friend said 500 crunches/100 pushup a day, not sure if hes right.

 

 

 

Uh, your friend is either very, VERY strong or doesn't do pushups correctly. I think I'll go with the latter :P.