The no "BS" exercise instruction thread!

Thanks for the advice about how to help reduce the visibility of the "bat wings". I'm going to go grab some weights and give those a try.

I have a question about pull ups. I've been rock climbing for a few years and think I've gotten fairly strong, but it bothers me that I still can't do a pull up. From a dead hang, I can only raise myself up about an inch, and then I stall. I'm doing assisted and australian pulls ups now, but can you also please recommend some home exercises I can do to strengthen the muscles needed for a pull up?

Rock climbing will actually increase strength, but the technique is mostly centered around how you use your legs which takes away the resistance on the back.
So what you can do to strengthen back is exercises like bent over rows, seated cable rows, and dumbell pullovers. And except for the pullovers, go HEAVY as you can for 6-8 reps. But to get efficient at pullups, you just gotta do them. To get better at them, try using a neutral grip (palms facing each other) with a narrow grip. The closer you arms are to your body the more power you can exert, so as you pull up, try to keep your arms close your body. As you get better, you can incrementally widen your grip.

ninerbuff, thanks for the awesome thread!

My question is on push ups. What's the proper technique to make sure I work my chest muscles on them? I'm never sure how far away from my body my arms should be or the best hand placement.

Thanks again for creating this thread.

From the start position your palms should be about even with the middle of your chest and just outside the width of your shoulders. The more you can get your elbow to travel away from your body, the more you'll activate the chest. The closer your elbows the more triceps you hit. Don't "lock" out at the top.......there should still be a slight bend to the elbow to keep tension on the muscle. Take twice as long to go down as you do up. Good pace is 1 second up, 2 seconds down.

SIDE LATERAL RAISE: This works the lateral deltoid and having "rounder" shoulders helps to create the illusion of a smaller waist too. Grab a set of dumbbells and stand straight up with the dumbbells at your sides. Your palms should be facing your body. You should be holding the dumbbells slightly off your body, this keeps the tension on the side delts and have a slight bend in the elbows. This is your starting position for the exercise. To execute, slowly raise the dumbbells up to around shoulder height. It's important that you do not let your wrists go above your elbows while raising the weight, this will take the work off the side delts and put it on the front delts. Pause at the top of the movement (at shoulder level) then slowly lower the weight back to the starting position. Do not let the dumbbells touch your body, then raise for the next rep.