Wanting To Build My Upper-Body

Gavin "shels"

At the moment I'm looking for new ways to build my upper-body at home. All I have is a set of dumbbells, with weigths 1.1kg, 2.3kg and 4.5kg.
What would someone recommend as essential? I wouldn't have a huge amount of money and not a huge amount of space.
Does anyone have a good work-out to use, which could help me?

cowzerp

Gavin shels wrote:

At the moment I'm looking for new ways to build my upper body

Is there something wrong with your legs?
are you wheelchair bound?
just asking so we can advise you how to exercise while your legs are not an option-sorry for your predicament.

blow69

Im in kinda the same situation as OP.But i do have lots o' money:p

EdgarAllenPoo

Have a look at the stuff here,

http://www.shapefit.com/training.html

they have plenty of exercises you can do with just dumbbells and most don't require a huge amount of room.

Gavin "shels"

cowzerp wrote:

Is there something wrong with your legs?
are you wheelchair bound?
just asking so we can advise you how to exercise while your legs are not an option-sorry for your predicament.

Nope don't have a problem with my legs, just I nearly have them build to what I want. Just looking for new ways on buildng my upper-body now.

RaiseTheBlinds

get a chin-up bar,........argos, less than a score.

work hard at it and you will benifit so fast its hard to believe.

Gavin "shels"

RaiseTheBlinds wrote:

get a chin-up bar,........argos, less than a score.

work hard at it and you will benifit so fast its hard to believe.

I'll have a look at one of those. Only thing is I doubt my parents will let me throw a few nails into my doorframe:o

Anyone else have some ideas?

ali.c

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055148843

mickk sells the ones that dont need to be nailed in to the door frame if thats any good! Other than that i cnat imagine what good a 1.1kg dumbell is going to do you, maybe get an adjustable set at least that way you'd have more weight to play with. Also stuff like dips ( you can use to sturdy chairs), push-ups, hand stands and handstand press-ups would be worth checking out

RaiseTheBlinds

Gavin shels wrote:

I'll have a look at one of those. Only thing is I doubt my parents will let me throw a few nails into my doorframe:o

Anyone else have some ideas?

they squeeze between a door-frame ,... you can release it and lower it to double up as a sit-up bar !!
they dont leave a mark on the door frame at all !!

only you will probably find chin-ups hard at first, but persist and you'll surprise yourself !!

i really only like push-ups , sit-ups, chin-ups, and stretching. with the occasional bench press and skipping.
these exercises will give you enough strength and allow you to stay fast and agile.
heavy weights will slow you down , but make you strong as !

the choice is yours

Gavin "shels"

ali.c wrote:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055148843

mickk sells the ones that dont need to be nailed in to the door frame if thats any good! Other than that i cnat imagine what good a 1.1kg dumbell is going to do you, maybe get an adjustable set at least that way you'd have more weight to play with. Also stuff like dips ( you can use to sturdy chairs), push-ups, hand stands and handstand press-ups would be worth checking out

Cheers. Not sure either what a 1.1kg dumbbell is good for. I do plenty of push-ups. And I won't start on doing anything regarding handstands:D


You don't know how much them chin-ups are that mickk is selling? And they don't damage your door-frame whatsoever?

ali.c

Gavin shels wrote:

You don't know how much them chin-ups are that mickk is selling? And they don't damage your door-frame whatsoever?

your best bet is to drop mickk a PM and ask him about the damage to the door frames etc.

Gavin "shels"

ali.c wrote:

your best bet is to drop mickk a PM and ask him about the damage to the door frames etc.

Done:cool:

Gavin "shels"

Anyone else have any ideas?

Sleepy

Pull Ups, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Press Ups, Chins, Shoulder Press

The weights you have are just too light to be of any use in bulking up. Maybe take a look at some of the home sets in Argos?

Colm_OReilly

heavy weights will slow you down , but make you strong as !

Quite simply, not true! Look at Olympic Sprinters, and compare them to Olympic Marathon runners. One of these groups has been doing heavy weights, one hasn't.

For further proof look at Rugby wingers - the South African Number 11 springs to mind.

Gavin,

You could do dips off the edge of your bed, and handstand push ups to build your upper body.

If you can stretch your funds (to the €80 mark I'd say) go to www.ringtraining.com and buy these rings. You can use them at home (off your doorway pull up bar) for push ups and rowing exercises. Go outside, find a tree, and start doing pull ups and muscle ups.

Low cost, highly effective.

agentgreen

Gavin shels wrote:

Done:cool:

Did he reply?

davyjose

Gavin shels wrote:

Nope don't have a problem with my legs, just I nearly have them build to what I want. Just looking for new ways on buildng my upper-body now.

One of the advantages of having big legs is that they are large muscles, so the bigger they are the higher your metabolism will be, effectively making it easier to keep bodyfat low.

rubadub

Colm_OReilly wrote:

If you can stretch your funds (to the €80 mark I'd say) go to www.ringtraining.com and buy these rings. You can use them at home (off your doorway pull up bar) for push ups and rowing exercises. Go outside, find a tree, and start doing pull ups and muscle ups.

Low cost, highly effective.

Here is more info on them, hopefully mine will arrive in time for the weekend.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055149676

workout about €67 including delivery with the weak dollar.

they squeeze between a door-frame ,... you can release it and lower it to double up as a sit-up bar !!
they dont leave a mark on the door frame at all !!

My argos one needs 2 recievers screwed into the frame, like little sockets, then the bar screws out and locks into them. The ones Mickk has work by a cantilever effect and require no screws at all. I have a odd shaped room and was able to put the argos one high up between 2 tight walls, otherwise in a door frame is is very low, while Mickks is higher. I think his was €50 for boards members

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055148843

The rings and chin bar will allow a lot of work to be done, could replace a lot of equipment up to a point, even when/if you do outgrow your own bodyweight (i.e. can do lots of reps) you could add weight to a schoolbag and exercise with it. Many just want to lose fat, and not muscle, maybe put on some muscle - in which case the rings & bar are only €117 and would be a great start and easily packed away, and both look like good quality hard wearing items.

Vegeta

get the rings and set "muscle ups" as your goal. Will pretty much give your upper body a hammering. I cant even do 1 yet

BossArky

Sleepy wrote:

Pull Ups, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Press Ups, Chins, Shoulder Press

What is the difference between Pull Ups and Chins? Aren't they the same?

Vegeta

BossArky wrote:

What is the difference between Pull Ups and Chins? Aren't they the same?

I think its the grip, palms facing away or towards you. There's some fancy term for it too, supinated(sp?) or something

I never remember which is which though

ali.c

Vegeta wrote:

I think its the grip, palms facing away or towards you. There's some fancy term for it too, supinated(sp?) or something

I never remember which is which though

Yeah pull ups your hands are facing away from you, chins-ups towards you. depending on the grip you use you hit slightly different muscle groups.

BossArky

Ok - I know about the grips. I usually try to mix them up every other day e.g. one day palms out, another palms in, another palms facing.

g'em

ali.c wrote:

Yeah pull ups your hands are facing away from you, chins-ups towards you. depending on the grip you use you hit slightly different muscle groups.

Aye, pull-ups use a pronated grip and chins use supinated. They both use lats and biceps, but the chin-up allows you to use the biceps more and so most people find them easier. Both are fantastic though.

BossArky

g'em wrote:

Aye, pull-ups use a pronated grip and chins use supinated. They both use lats and biceps, but the chin-up allows you to use the biceps more and so most people find them easier. Both are fantastic though.

I kinda feel like I'm cheating if I do chins as opposed to pull ups

g'em

BossArky wrote:

I kinda feel like I'm cheating if I do chins as opposed to pull ups

nah, course you aren't, not unless you have some very specific goal in mind. Why not switch them up from one week to the next, or play with variations (there's dozens, just put 'pull-up variation' into Google - mixed grip, hand-width, bar thickness etc) or if they feel too easy do them weighted.

rubadub

BossArky wrote:

I kinda feel like I'm cheating if I do chins as opposed to pull ups

I just do both, to make the chins harder I do leg raises up to my chest at the same time. Can do way more chins than pullups

I also do pullups on a building/shelter near me, and on the landing while standing on the stairs, this is harder since you hands are flat on top, i.e. no bar to grip.

With the rings a pull/chin up is sort of merged as they spin around and it is like doing both.

I put 2 mountain bike tubes over my chinning bar, I doubled them over and was able to loop my wrists through them. This then had a sort of similar effect as the rings, it also made grip strenght less of a limiting factor since the tube on the wrist acted like a support- sort of like wrist wraps doing deadlifts.

Does anybody do rope climbing? or pole climbing? There are big rugby poles in the field near me, was thinking of giving it a shot, I have good grippy gloves for it.

kevpants

I highly recommend hand stand push ups. Google them. You'll have the technique down in one session. Just be prepared to train at them for weeks before you can do a full one.

Hindu squats are great for the legs if you've no equipment.

Rather than just normal pushups try putting weights (or books or whatever) in a backpack and doing them with the pack on your back. One armed push ups are good too.

I used to get by on these for years.

BossArky

rubadub wrote:

I just do both, to make the chins harder I do leg raises up to my chest at the same time. Can do way more chins than pullups

I also do pullups on a building/shelter near me, and on the landing while standing on the stairs, this is harder since you hands are flat on top, i.e. no bar to grip.

With the rings a pull/chin up is sort of merged as they spin around and it is like doing both.

I put 2 mountain bike tubes over my chinning bar, I doubled them over and was able to loop my wrists through them. This then had a sort of similar effect as the rings, it also made grip strenght less of a limiting factor since the tube on the wrist acted like a support- sort of like wrist wraps doing deadlifts.

Does anybody do rope climbing? or pole climbing? There are big rugby poles in the field near me, was thinking of giving it a shot, I have good grippy gloves for it.

Rubadub, you have some great "outside the box" ideas! Can just imagine the looks I would get if I walked into my gym with a bike tube over my shoulder I know what you mean though.

Be careful if you attempt climbing on goal posts. Years ago a fellow in Clonmel was killed when messing about hanging from a goal post. The cross bar was loose, fell down on his head and killed him.

When you do leg raises with chins do you keep legs straight or bent? My gym's pull up station is facing a wall which means I cannot even do bent leg raises during pulls. Only alternative is to do pull ups to the bar in a squat rack. This is a bit awkward too though as 1) people want to squat there and 2) the bar isn't really high enough without having to hold legs up and knees bent.

rubadub

BossArky wrote:

Can just imagine the looks I would get if I walked into my gym with a bike tube over my shoulder

LOL, yes, I am doing this at home, the added advantage of a home workout.

BossArky wrote:

The cross bar was loose, fell down on his head and killed him.

Will keep that in mind alright, I plan on using the rings on one, I think I have seen several lads at a time doing chins on the ones, will make sure they can take it. I was thinking of going up the main pole rather than across it.

BossArky wrote:

When you do leg raises with chins do you keep legs straight or bent?

I usually start the chin and halfway up bend the knee completely, trying to touch my knee to my chest, my chin bar is not in a door frame so I can get well above it, no walls in the way. Other times I chin to the top, pause and do the leg raise. I also drop completely down between chins & pulls, keep hold of the bar but am down as far as I can go. Somebody posted the other day with a guy doing a L shaped leg raise on dip bars, and doing it on a "landing" type platform- i.e. not a bar, he just kept the legs in an L shape the whole time- I never tried this.

There are some good playgrounds near me, might go there early some morning, a grown man on his own sweating like an animal might not look right!

Check out these guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t88CLZe0EFg

Gavin "shels"

agentgreen wrote:

Did he reply?

Getting one on Saturday:D

Cheers for all the replys, I'll have a look into new weights and a few of the other pieces of advice given.