What are your challenge areas, muscle-wise?

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withchaco
withchaco Posts: 1,026 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have EXTREMELY weak grip. I'm afraid to do grip exercises because in the past, when I tried it, my hands got really tired, which is very bad for me (I'm an artist -- if my hand runs out of its gripping stamina, I can't do my job). One of these days, though, I do want to try it again, and take it easy so I don't overdo it. Maybe I should just try taking piano lessons?

Another challenge area for me: BICEPS!!! When I first started going to the gym, lifting 10lbs on the bicep curl machine was almost impossible for me (you do it with both hands, so it's just 5lbs per arm... lol). I normally do 12 reps, 2 sets, but I couldn't do 12 reps. Today I do 20lbs for the first set, and 15 for the second, which may seem laughable... but hey, it's a huge improvement for me! :) I was so excited when I first did a full set of 20lbs! Hopefully by July, I'll be doing two sets of 20lbs.

What about you?

Replies

  • artemis222
    artemis222 Posts: 390 Member
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    I swear a lot of my fat seems to love my biceps. Its a HUGE embarrassment for me. I'm only doing 5lb an arm right now one set of 30 reps. Can't wait until I'm to your level :D
  • withchaco
    withchaco Posts: 1,026 Member
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    I swear a lot of my fat seems to love my biceps. Its a HUGE embarrassment for me. I'm only doing 5lb an arm right now one set of 30 reps. Can't wait until I'm to your level :D
    I was stuck on 10lbs/ both arms for years (granted, I didn't go to the gym regularly, but still...). I bet if you do it regularly, you'll get there a lot faster than I did!
  • chizzledfrmstone
    chizzledfrmstone Posts: 58
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    My grip also used to be pretty weak.

    On certain exercises I would do an alternating grip to strengthen my hands (deadlifts and such). I used Chinese meditation balls to increase dexterity.

    Have you thought about using a hand gripper?

    I starting using (http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=hand+grips&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=10074662115034245808&sa=X&ei=eSPvTZm5NYH6swPPh-X_Bg&ved=0CEgQ8gIwAg) when I was younger and moved up to Captain of Crush Hand Grippers.

    If you decide to go this route don't get one of those cheap plastic handle ones. I was using a friends and crushed it... the broken plastic would have gone in my hand if I wasn't paying attention.
  • dcmat
    dcmat Posts: 1,723 Member
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    Grip and arm muscle tone can be improved by cycling! Trust me, it works, and it has even been proved to be of advantage in helping reduce/slow down osteoporosis
  • deeharley
    deeharley Posts: 1,208 Member
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    My shoulders are my weak spot. It is hard for me to do push ups, chest presses etc, because my shoulders and neck are in bad shape. Yes, it's due to injuries.
  • HeidiMightyRawr
    HeidiMightyRawr Posts: 3,343 Member
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    I would say my legs, I want to have more muscle on them and have them stronger than they are at the moment.
    For ages I never did squats or much other leg work, so they're kind of lagging behind a bit in comparsion to other parts of my body and i'm set to change that - did a massive workout on them Monday and still got the soreness :/
  • withchaco
    withchaco Posts: 1,026 Member
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    My shoulders are my weak spot. It is hard for me to do push ups, chest presses etc, because my shoulders and neck are in bad shape. Yes, it's due to injuries.
    My shoulders are weak too... not really from injuries per say, but from years of bad posture. :( They're getting better though.
  • withchaco
    withchaco Posts: 1,026 Member
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    If you decide to go this route don't get one of those cheap plastic handle ones. I was using a friends and crushed it... the broken plastic would have gone in my hand if I wasn't paying attention.
    Yikes! Thanks for the warning. That would be very bad.
  • niavalentino
    niavalentino Posts: 131 Member
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    My chest/shoulders. Even when I was at the height of my fitness, I could ONLY muster 40 push-ups in one-go TOPS. Now, it is a challenge for me to do 10. I've always hated doing push-ups, I find them to be evil, so I avoided them. Now I'm trying to get past doing push-ups on my knees and force myself to get back to be able to do to at least 25 without wanting to kill myself.
  • LilRedRooster
    LilRedRooster Posts: 1,421 Member
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    My left leg. And that sounds random, but I hurt my knee several years ago, and was off it for about two weeks. Muscle atrophy got going, and it's actually noticeably smaller than my right, no matter how much I exercise. Like, I can wear a pair of jeans, and they're always tighter on my right leg than my left. I actually have to focus on extra squats/lunges and leg-specific exercise on that side, to try and even it out, because otherwise my knee ends up having issues, especially with running.

    The rest of me tends to put on muscle pretty easily, so I've never had big issues with other parts. Just that one leg, haha.
  • Tree72
    Tree72 Posts: 942 Member
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    When I started the hardest was definitely abs. Now that I've built up some core strength, so many exercises are easier or even possible that weren't before. I still have a long way to go, but at least I can do most of the basics now (planks, push ups, sit ups).

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