AlexTheGreat
Senior Don Juan
- Joined
- May 9, 2004
- Messages
- 497
- Reaction score
- 7
There is a way to build up your chest and back, without having to go to the gym. It involves simple, but very hard exercises, but develops a massive chest, works the forearms, the back and every other upper-body muscle. At the same time, it develops lean strength and stability (meaning you will be more powerful and able to carry things away from your body a lot easier). Let's begin:
Step 1: Building the base
Before being able to lift yourself off the ground using your hands only, you must pack some basic muscle on, and develop your stabilizers. To do that, start off slow. Crouch to the ground, in a position similar to a sprinter's starting stance. Put your hands on the ground, a little bigger than shoulder-width, and make sure your arms are completely vertical (this does NOT mean to keep your elbows straight. By all means, bend them: it will work even better). Next, install your knees on your elbows (your legs should be spread wider than your elbows, at knee level), lift your feet on the tip of the toes, and distribute more weight to the arms. Lean forward a little more, until your arms are supporting your whole body weight (lift your feet off the ground). This may take a few days to master, but it is the basis upon which everything is built. Once you get stability, you can try varying the elbow angle, the distance between the hands, and whatever else you could adjust: they will all work slightly different muscles, and you want the most complete workout.
Step 2: Lifting yourself
The next step is the most difficult one, because it takes raw strength to pull it off. Ironically, you need strength to build strength.
After having successfully mastered the base, you can go on to lifting your body up. This involves forcing the back and the shoulders to rotate upwards, and lift the knees from the elbows. It is also very difficult to do, because of the strength needed to do this. Don't be discouraged if you're not able to do it at first: when I first started this, I couldn't last more than 2 seconds, or lift my knees more than a few inches off my elbows before crashing to the ground; but a few days of work later, and I was able to keep the stance with relative ease.
Basically, to lift your legs up, try to lean forward a little more (bring your head down to about 2-3 inches off the ground), and elevate the legs. The hard part is keeping balance while pushing (and finding the strength to push!)
Step 3: Closure
Now that you've mastered the base and the lift, all you have to do is go back down .... and start again! This will be incredibly hard to do, even for just a few reps, so take it slow. Eventually, strength will come, and this will become easier. After you have mastered this, your chest, back, shoulders and arms will be built, and you won't even have to go through the trouble of doing the base to do the hands-only pushups: you will be able, by keeping the arms in the same position, but by keeping the knees tucked underneath your chest, to lift rotate on your shoulders and lift your legs up from the arms. Then, when the back has reached a horizontal position, you'll spread the legs out, lean forward to keep balance, and you'll be able to modify this even more as strength builds up!
Here's a little diagram of how the exercise works:
http://alexthegreat.no-ip.com/graph/workout.jpg
Step 1: Building the base
Before being able to lift yourself off the ground using your hands only, you must pack some basic muscle on, and develop your stabilizers. To do that, start off slow. Crouch to the ground, in a position similar to a sprinter's starting stance. Put your hands on the ground, a little bigger than shoulder-width, and make sure your arms are completely vertical (this does NOT mean to keep your elbows straight. By all means, bend them: it will work even better). Next, install your knees on your elbows (your legs should be spread wider than your elbows, at knee level), lift your feet on the tip of the toes, and distribute more weight to the arms. Lean forward a little more, until your arms are supporting your whole body weight (lift your feet off the ground). This may take a few days to master, but it is the basis upon which everything is built. Once you get stability, you can try varying the elbow angle, the distance between the hands, and whatever else you could adjust: they will all work slightly different muscles, and you want the most complete workout.
Step 2: Lifting yourself
The next step is the most difficult one, because it takes raw strength to pull it off. Ironically, you need strength to build strength.
After having successfully mastered the base, you can go on to lifting your body up. This involves forcing the back and the shoulders to rotate upwards, and lift the knees from the elbows. It is also very difficult to do, because of the strength needed to do this. Don't be discouraged if you're not able to do it at first: when I first started this, I couldn't last more than 2 seconds, or lift my knees more than a few inches off my elbows before crashing to the ground; but a few days of work later, and I was able to keep the stance with relative ease.
Basically, to lift your legs up, try to lean forward a little more (bring your head down to about 2-3 inches off the ground), and elevate the legs. The hard part is keeping balance while pushing (and finding the strength to push!)
Step 3: Closure
Now that you've mastered the base and the lift, all you have to do is go back down .... and start again! This will be incredibly hard to do, even for just a few reps, so take it slow. Eventually, strength will come, and this will become easier. After you have mastered this, your chest, back, shoulders and arms will be built, and you won't even have to go through the trouble of doing the base to do the hands-only pushups: you will be able, by keeping the arms in the same position, but by keeping the knees tucked underneath your chest, to lift rotate on your shoulders and lift your legs up from the arms. Then, when the back has reached a horizontal position, you'll spread the legs out, lean forward to keep balance, and you'll be able to modify this even more as strength builds up!
Here's a little diagram of how the exercise works:
http://alexthegreat.no-ip.com/graph/workout.jpg
)