Up your upper-body strength

There are numerous health benefits associated with strength training. Yet many people neglect their biceps, triceps, lats, deltoids, and pecs. Upper body strength has many rewards: a leaner, more defined physique and a higher total muscle mass (leading to increased metabolism). Better still, you have more applied strength – which means your shopping bags will feel lighter. This month, challenge yourself to start building up your upper body strength by doing some form of training at least 2 days per week.

Always consult a physician before starting any exercise routine.

(When logging progress for this challenge, only log as many days as you participated the activity within the 30-day time frame.)


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10 comments
P6240201
Posted July 03, 2008 at 11:25 AM

I just got these new push-up assistant things, called the “Perfect Push-up)—as seen on tv—they’re basically these strong handles that you set on the floor & hold onto while doing push ups, it helps you to keep better form and works more muscles cuz they swivel on a base under them and you are twisting your hands back and forth as you go up and down, just wanted to let people out there know that its a great piece of equipment for the upper body and not a gimmick

Kashi_dot_com_pic
Posted July 03, 2008 at 01:27 PM

Even without handles, pushups are on of the best overall toning exercises you can do. By keeping your body rigid like a plank and moving it as one unit (as opposed to keeping your pelvis up in the air or near the ground), you can work out your arms, shoulders, chest and core all at once. My goal for this challenge is to do pushups at least 4 days a week all summer. If you want motivation to do pushups, consider this: even the strongest people have difficulty doing pushups for more than two consecutive minutes, meaning that even if you try, it will be hard to make your set of pushups last longer than a commercial break. Of course pushups aren’t for everybody, but they work well for me.

User_thumb
Posted July 03, 2008 at 04:05 PM

I hate push ups! Actually, I hated them. Then I saw how efficiently and effectively they’ve strengthened and toned my triceps, shoulders, back and how they’ve helped me improve my core stability. I do three sets of 15 a day. They’re kind of a one-stop upper body workout and it’s completely worth the few minutes it takes to do them each day. My new goal is to tweak the push up each week to target new muscle groups and continue challenging my body.

Embracing_my_baby
Posted July 10, 2008 at 05:56 AM

My favorite toys are my Elite Rings. They’re portable gymnast rings and make any floor exercise brutal. Push-ups are tough because not only do you have sideways movement to worry about, they can also travel forwards and backwards! This means you have to keep constant tension the entire time. I usually do sets of 20. Dips are even harder. I usually do around 8 on my sets.

A great exercise to build upper body strength, particularly in the shoulders, is to do handstands against a wall. Stand about a foot, foot-and-a-half away from a wall and kick up into a handstand, allowing your feet to rest on the wall (keep proper technique- straight body, straight legs, etc.). Try to hold it for as long as you can. If you feel strong enough, try doing Handstand Push-Ups!

I have to do chest and biceps today, so I’ll post that workout when I finish it!

Golfrrgrrl
Posted July 10, 2008 at 08:08 PM

I golf and a big part of that is an entire body workout. You work your entire bopy on every shot but especially out of the tee box. I also have a practice area at home I can use any time.

User_thumb
Posted July 21, 2008 at 09:42 AM

I have been lifting with two of my friends at the local gym for the past year. We were meeting just once a week until this summer. Now we meet twice a week and have added yoga once a week. I am adding an additional yoga day to my week starting tomorrow. I do cardio 3-5 times a week also.

User_thumb
Posted July 26, 2008 at 11:34 AM

I hated pushups for the longest time.I have been lifting for 20 years now and as akid I would see these guys in the gym with huge upperbody and want to build like them.Thats when one of them told me the best advice ever. He said he always starts and ends his workouts with pushups and crunches.Especially on his chest days.

User_thumb
Posted August 16, 2008 at 01:49 PM

I have done push ups off and on for a long time. This will motivate me to do them regularly. I workout 3x’s a week, I think I’ll incorporate push-ups in!

User_thumb
Posted August 20, 2008 at 08:46 AM

So I started adding pushups to my routine.. Right now I can only do about 3 set’s of 4.. but with time I’d like to increase that! I also right now instead of weights have been using milk jugs filled with water.. I’ve been using that for arm workouts.

User_thumb
Posted September 06, 2008 at 05:58 AM

On Saturdays I do a Ball class, Monday is Yoga and body sculpt, Tuesday is the band blast class and yoga, Thursday is cross training and pilates, Friday is yoga and pilates