Core and upper body workout plans

pug_

I've been doing a lot of running over the last few years, and more recently cycling. Unfortunately I've not been doing any work on my core or upper body in parallel so I'm starting to look a bit lopsided with muscular strong looking legs and a slightly emaciated bony looking upper body.

I'm also starting to feel weak in my upper body. What I mean by this is I've started to notice that I'm losing muscle mass in my upper body and I can no longer lift things that used to be no problem to me, even putting the bin bags into the rubbish bin is starting to take a couple of swings before I can get it in. I'm not underweight or anything though, I'm 6 foot tall and weigh about 12 and a half stone.

My problem is I can't afford a gym membership or any kind of personal trainer or anything like that, so I need help finding a good training plan that requires the minimum amount of equipment for maybe a half hour to an hour 3-4 times a week. Obviously it's something I'll want to keep up into the foreseeable future so I'll probably need a way of varying it too so as to prevent boredom and make sure I'm getting the desired results from the workout.

I am utterly, utterly, clueless about this type of thing I've never done any kind of training before in my life, so any help at all much appreciated.

squod

Press-ups, supine rows, underarm pull-ups, sit-ups. Equipment wise all you'll need is a door mounted pull-up bar and a sweeping brush and two kitchen chairs. Don't neglect legs. Body weight squats are excellent exercise.

There's still loads of youtube channels that cater for home work-outs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWA6CekliXI

pug_

Thanks for the reply. Are there any recommended youtube videos or similar that are part of a plan? Ideally what I'm looking for is week 1 do x,y,z on Monday, A,B,C on Wednesday, and Q,R,S on Friday etc..

The thing is with me motivation in general isn't an issue, but if I don't have a plan to follow my motivation can go and I want to know that whatever I start is do-able, and will provide the results I need.

squod

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ztXsfHbbJU

All those exercises are bodyweight. Can't see a video on the youtube with all of them together.

I'd guess you could repeat one round of them three days a week. Difficult to know how many reps of each you could do. I'd say go to failure ('till you can do no more) on each set.

Starting with say press-ups, then bodyweight squats, supine rows, sit-ups and underhand pull-ups. All X as many as you can.

Kadongy

Pullups are excellent. One handed pressups and pistol squats are very good for abs and core - mainly the sides. One handed pressups are hard but you can build up to them by doing them from the knees, or using one hand as little as possible. Pistols seem to take most people a bit of practice too but you can hold onto something until you get the hang of them. Overhead squats with a brush handle are also good.

pug_

Is that a realistic long term plan to pick random exercises and keep doing them until I can't do any more? I know I'm clueless but I'd really prefer a structured plan to follow if such a thing is available, or if there were some site out there that could build a plan based on certain criteria or something.

As for one handed press-ups, pull-ups etc. Thanks for the advice, but I just gave one-handed press-ups a go and managed a sum total of zero, even on my knees, couldn't even get a bit of me off the ground.

squod

pug_ wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, but I just gave one-handed press-ups a go and managed a sum total of zero, even on my knees, couldn't even get a bit of me off the ground.

Try one handed press-ups on the stairs. Use elastic rope as a counter weight for pull-ups.

pug_ wrote: »

Is that a realistic long term plan to pick random exercises and keep doing them until I can't do any more? I know I'm clueless but I'd really prefer a structured plan to follow if such a thing is available, or if there were some site out there that could build a plan based on certain criteria or something.

Depends on development. This is how I started out. It's what I was doing all of last week when my back was fubared. These exercises are the basic stuff. You should develop well by doing them in this way. Give it a few months and report back is all I can say.