Upper Body Strength: Help please

Piqueaboo

A bit of background: I started using MFP again about 4 months ago because my weight got out of control, since then I've lost 33lbs through calorie counting and doing C25K (I'm almost done with week 6), and doing a lot of active things on the weekends (walking a lot, hiking, ice skating, etc). I don't have a gym membership nor do I want to get one. I tried to do the 30 Day Shred which I loved in the past, but I have a knee that is acting up and it became painful, so I stopped.

I have 0 upper body strength - can't plank, can't do push-ups, not even the ones where you are on your knees. I want to work on this, not only because I want more strength in my upper body, but because I also know that it's better to mix strength training with cardio to build muscle which then leads to better fat burning.

Would anybody here have any good tips how to ease into it? Home plans, youtube videos that helped, preferably things that don't go into the knees too much?

Thank you in advance!

Reaverie

I have no clue and have wondered about this myself. I grew up on a farm and could easily take out every member of the wrestling team at the school I went to, but pushups, pull ups, rope climbing, weight lifting? I couldnt do ANY of that. However, I was the fastest at rock climbing at my school, could hold myself steady on the rings in gymnastics, could do hand stands and walk on my hands.. and then got made fun of by my karate teacher because I couldnt hit the punching bag and make it move. He had me hit him in the arm over and over until he started slapping at me like a girl and mocking me about my butterfly swats, then point blank asked me why I was wasting his time by coming to class. I could lift bails of hay with ease though? It never did make any damn sense. Even now, as big as I am, I am stronger than my 17 year old "fit" son who weight trains. It pisses him off sometimes when I am the one called to do heavy lifting. Life makes so much sense..

Cylphin60

I would recommend choosing and following a program like Strong Curves, and simply adjust the weight you work with accordingly. You've got to start somewhere and that's as highly recommended a program as I've seen yet. Just be consistent.

DarrelBirkett

Progressive load using compound routines.

To expand on that.

Bench Press
Dumbell Press
Seated Rows
Military Press
Pull ups/chins
Dips
Bent over rows

Theres a few good compounds.

Next, and Ill just use the bench press as an example.

Session 1. Press bar only. (full bar is around 20kg, if too heavy use a fixed lighter bar 10kg for example).
Now look in to form and how to do it (where legs should be, shoulders, elbows, range of motion, speed, breathing etc)
Do 4 sets, 6-8 reps.
If you can do 8 reps each set, next session add weight (1.25, 2,5, or 5kg)
You do that each session until you can only manage minimum 6 reps. If you hit 8, put the weight up. If you hit 5, drop weight down. you get the idea.

you continue like that and the aim every week is either adding 1 extra rep, or adding weight and hitting 6 reps. you are slowly looking for improvement week to week.

Dont do all of those movements by the way. An example might be:

Monday
Bench Press
Seated Rows
Military Press

Thursday
Include Dumbell Press
Bent Over Rows
Lateral raises
Dips

crista19822015

If you are working out from home and don't have or don't want to by weights you can use food cans their are 2 different sizes. And just look up arm workouts on pinterist or the Internet. I would probably just want to start with the basics: bicep curls, hammer curls, wide curls, shoulder raises,front and lateral raises, tricep kickbacks, triceps over head, chest Flys( you can just do these on the floor) chest press. Usually 3 sets of 12-15 reps. Hopefully that helps.

35dollars

Piqueaboo wrote: »

I have 0 upper body strength - can't plank, can't do push-ups, not even the ones where you are on your knees. I want to work on this, not only because I want more strength in my upper body, but because I also know that it's better to mix strength training with cardio to build muscle which then leads to better fat burning.

General rule of developing strength is to progessively increase the amount of resistance/weight, but from what you say, you're struggling to get to day 1 of a plan, so I think a bit of lateral thinking is needed.

If you can't do horizontal pushing exercises like push-ups, or support yourself on your extended arms in planks, try doing them vertically instead: stand a bit less than arms' length away from a wall, lean forward towards the wall and support yourself with your arms outstretched - start with just supporting your weight, then progress to doing "push-ups" (push aways, I guess) against the wall. As you get used to those, move your feet further away from the wall to increase resistance (do this on a non-slip floor!). Once you've got to the point where you're at a 30 degree angle or so of your body to the wall, you'll probably find you're able to do adjusted push-ups on the floor (eg on your knees), and will then be able to progress from there.

(* nb this is intended to be a progression over a number of sessions, not all in one go, though you may increase the difficulty within a session when you start finding it too easy).

You might also want to try something like suspension straps (TRX or equivalent). They will let you try different exercises at different angles and varying difficulty

lili61

35dollars wrote: »

Piqueaboo wrote: »

I have 0 upper body strength - can't plank, can't do push-ups, not even the ones where you are on your knees. I want to work on this, not only because I want more strength in my upper body, but because I also know that it's better to mix strength training with cardio to build muscle which then leads to better fat burning.

General rule of developing strength is to progessively increase the amount of resistance/weight, but from what you say, you're struggling to get to day 1 of a plan, so I think a bit of lateral thinking is needed.

If you can't do horizontal pushing exercises like push-ups, or support yourself on your extended arms in planks, try doing them vertically instead: stand a bit less than arms' length away from a wall, lean forward towards the wall and support yourself with your arms outstretched - start with just supporting your weight, then progress to doing "push-ups" (push aways, I guess) against the wall. As you get used to those, move your feet further away from the wall to increase resistance (do this on a non-slip floor!). Once you've got to the point where you're at a 30 degree angle or so of your body to the wall, you'll probably find you're able to do adjusted push-ups on the floor (eg on your knees), and will then be able to progress from there.

(* nb this is intended to be a progression over a number of sessions, not all in one go, though you may increase the difficulty within a session when you start finding it too easy).

You might also want to try something like suspension straps (TRX or equivalent). They will let you try different exercises at different angles and varying difficulty

This is great advice. Ideally you'd find a progressive strength program. That's what I did and I modified push ups, etc as suggested above, and now I can do 15-20 on the ground, with good form. I can nearly do an unassisted pull up too. This is coming from someone who had very little upper body strength before.

capaul42

Look into You Are Your Own Gym. It's a great progressive bodyweight program. Or check Strong Curves, it has a bodyweight program as well.

canadianlbs

Piqueaboo wrote: »

I have 0 upper body strength - can't plank, can't do push-ups, not even the ones where you are on your knees.

what's your 'pull' strength like? i got into stronglifts and made progress with the specific lifts - bench, press, pendlay rows, deadlifts. but i always feel like my meaningful upper-body work didn't start until i saw a trainer and physio who both got me to add band work, pulldowns and rear-shoulder rotation work as warmups.

and i still can't do pushups

shaun823

DarrelBirkett wrote: »

Progressive load using compound routines.

To expand on that.

Bench Press
Dumbell Press
Seated Rows
Military Press
Pull ups/chins
Dips
Bent over rows

Theres a few good compounds.

Next, and Ill just use the bench press as an example.

Session 1. Press bar only. (full bar is around 20kg, if too heavy use a fixed lighter bar 10kg for example).
Now look in to form and how to do it (where legs should be, shoulders, elbows, range of motion, speed, breathing etc)
Do 4 sets, 6-8 reps.
If you can do 8 reps each set, next session add weight (1.25, 2,5, or 5kg)
You do that each session until you can only manage minimum 6 reps. If you hit 8, put the weight up. If you hit 5, drop weight down. you get the idea.

you continue like that and the aim every week is either adding 1 extra rep, or adding weight and hitting 6 reps. you are slowly looking for improvement week to week.

Dont do all of those movements by the way. An example might be:

Monday
Bench Press
Seated Rows
Military Press

Thursday
Include Dumbell Press
Bent Over Rows
Lateral raises
Dips

Good info here!

jessef593

I'll bring up the fact that your knee injury and lack of total body strength could be due to the fact that you're at a 1000 total daily caloric deficit. Which is pretty up there.