Upper body weak.

secwife47
secwife47 Posts: 29 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Help, im 57 years old. I have dropped 50 pounds and feel so much better. But I need some type of exercise to build up my arm strength. I do some general exercise and find my arms give out very fast. I have some small weights. Should I use them everyday? Will just using them help? Any suggestions would be grateful. Thanks

Replies

  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
    to build strength you have to do a progressive load lifting program.

    And by that I mean you have to increase the weight everytime you do that exercise.

    Your arms giving is a sign of endurance really which is different than strength.

    If you want a stronger upper body try resistence bands or body weight exercises...such as push ups.

    Google convict conditioning they have good exercises.

    You can continue with the hand weights if you so choose just keep adding reps (up to 12-15) to build your endurance and then get bigger ones for strength after you find it getting "easy"
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    How heavy are the weights that you have? They sound fairly light so I am going to guess that they will not help much. However, the nice thing is that you can use your own bodyweight to strengthen your upper body. I would suggest trying pushups and dips and horizontal pulls. Then I'd add in one arm rows, which you will need a weight for but you can use several books in a bag or a jug of milk or anything else that has some heft to it. You can start those lighter, just to get the movement right but I'd add weight once I got to 8 reps. Don't stick with 5 pounds forever, is what I'm saying :)

    If you can't do pushups, dips, etc., these variations can help you out:

    1. Pushup progression: http://www.startbodyweight.com/p/push-up-progression.html

    2. Dip progression: http://www.startbodyweight.com/p/dip-progression.html

    3. Horizontal pulls: http://www.startbodyweight.com/p/horizontal-pulls-progression.html

    4. One arm rows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gOYkpfT9Hc
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Help, im 57 years old. I have dropped 50 pounds and feel so much better. But I need some type of exercise to build up my arm strength. I do some general exercise and find my arms give out very fast. I have some small weights. Should I use them everyday? Will just using them help? Any suggestions would be grateful. Thanks

    Press ups... You can start against a wall and work your way to full press ups...

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