Upper Body Muscle Building Only dont care about lower half!

finnegan2010

HI Guys So its a new year and im 6 foot 1 and 16 stone.
I want get nice shoulders and biceps and loose weight. Is weight training a substitution for cardio. I hate walking running etc would prefer to lift weights.
I dont care about a 6 pack.... big leg muscles...... just my upper body. What equipment should i get i was thinking this in the link from Argos.
And exercise wise what would one suggest.
As i say i want to loose fat and get more muscle along my upper body.

Hooah



http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/3355549/Trail/searchtext%3EWEIGHTS.htm

aquaman

finnegan2010 wrote: »

HI Guys So its a new year and im 6 foot 1 and 16 stone.
I want get nice shoulders and biceps and loose weight. Is weight training a substitution for cardio. I hate walking running etc would prefer to lift weights.
I dont care about a 6 pack.... big leg muscles...... just my upper body. What equipment should i get i was thinking this in the link from Argos.
And exercise wise what would one suggest.
As i say i want to loose fat and get more muscle along my upper body.

Hooah

Weight Training is not really a substitute for cardio. Best to combine both, if you dont enjoy walking or running a competitive sport might be more fun. To do some cardio is very benifical to overall health.
However, that been said, doing some weight training is better than doing nothing.

On the weight training side: just exercising the upper body is a very bad approach. You must train the whole body for best results.

Keep it simple to start off. Bench press (or dumbell presses), shoulder presses, pull ups (and/or rows), squats and dead lifts.

There are lots of websites which will give good instructions on how to do all these exercises. As well as how often, how heavy etc. But I think best to start off doing them 2 or 3 times a week. Start off with the weights light to get used to the motions.

Those argus weights are ok I(just about) as you can add weight to them and you will need to as you will gain strength quickly.
But if you were to join a gym everything you need would be there and maybe deciding what you need for a home gym would be easier later. In fact you can do most of what you need at home with a bench and a good set of dumbels providing you have enough weights for them.

Anyway, best of luck with it.

AntiVirus

There's plenty of other people on here who can give you some good advice on what exercise's to do to build up your upper body but one thing I would say is to be carefull when buying cheap benches as the maximum weight they can support is not very high and as you get stronger you might be adding more weight and it might not be able to support it.

I almost made that mistake with this bench, then noticed it only supported 17 stone!!!

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/3028168/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7CSports+and+leisure%7C14419152/Trail/searchtext%3EBENCH.htm

SanoVitae

finnegan2010

SanoVitae wrote: »

ha ha my hero

xgtdec

you could use the 40Kg of weight to start your legs off

To my knowledge working your upper for the beach muscle's and ignoring the lower is a no go, but sure whatever make you happy with your bod is the way to go!!

Remmy

If you are going to be working out at home forgot the crappy weight sets and get an olympic bar with some weights.You will get way more use from it and you can just buy more plates as you get stronger .Good exercises for your upper body are barbell presses,barbell rows, deadlifts,shrugs,barbell curls and barbell extensions

Stick to the basic 'meat and potato' lifts and just add weight to them.Also if you are truly not going to work your legs then invent some fictious story about getting into a horrific car accident and tell people if you work your legs you'l die.It's probablly best if you cultivate a limp to make it more believable;).

Best of luck op...

finnegan2010

Remmy wrote: »

If you are going to be working out at home forgot the crappy weight sets and get an olympic bar with some weights.You will get way more use from it and you can just buy more plates as you get stronger .Good exercises for your upper body are barbell presses,barbell rows, deadlifts,shrugs,barbell curls and barbell extensions

Stick to the basic 'meat and potato' lifts and just add weight to them.Also if you are truly not going to work your legs then invent some fictious story about getting into a horrific car accident and tell people if you work your legs you'l die.It's probablly best if you cultivate a limp to make it more believable;).

Best of luck op...

thanks lads. Well when i say build my top half i dont mean to extremes. Or maybe i could just work the lower half and look like that guy in the waiting room in beatle juice with the tiny head lol

discus

lol at that reference!

Good exercises for your upper body are barbell presses,barbell rows, deadlifts,shrugs,barbell curls and barbell extensions

So far we have:
Overhead press
Bench/floor press
BB rows
deadlifts
shrugs
barbell curls
barbell extensions

Don't forget
Power cleans / hang cleans
Front squat

cc87

pull ups and push ups

scottie pippen

if you want to get really big, don't bother with that set from agos, not enough weight with it, you'll have have to upgrade to a wider bar and more weights after about 3 months or so.

I have that set, and I will need to upgrade SOON as I'm squatting the whole amount right now, and I'm way lighter than you

Lantus

Just wanting pecs and guns is the classic mistake most men make when approaching weightlifting. It'a a bit like trying to fix a broken aerial on the car when the chassis is rotten and it's pointless.

For symmetry the whole body needs to be worked out to ensure you dont look odd. working large muscles like the back and especially the legs kick starts your entire metabolism and helps generate growth hormones around the whole body. basically people who work their legs get great bodies all over. MAGIC!

squod

If your only starting out, why not just buy a chin-up bar and start with press ups, pull-ups and inverted rows. I can guarantee getting to 100 proper press-ups will take a longer time than it will to outgrow those weights.

Laisurg

If you want to lose fat then you're going to have to do cardio, a good diet could be helpful as well, as someone else pointed out be careful about getting a cheap bench, remember they're cheap for a reason, and id say you will probably be wanting more than 40kg of weight pretty quickly, probably worth your while forking out the extra bit of money for a better bench and weights, although decent weights cost a fair bit may be worth your while going to a gym instead for 3 months or so first to make sure your gonna stick with it.