Sunday, April 29, 2007 Get a Chin-up Bar
Pull-ups are one of the foundation exercise for full body development. A bar is about the only equipment one needs for a home gym.
I recommend the installing it in the bathroom door to make chin-ups more convenient. This way you can perform a rep or two everytime you go to the bathroom.
I own the Go-Fit Chin-Up bar. I purchased this brand because it was availible at a local Dick's Sporting Goods store. While I'm not brand loyal, I own several of their products and will talk about them another time.
The Basics: Chin-Ups are performed with palms faces you.
Keep the arms slightly bent so as not to fully lock them out in the low position.
Chin up until your chest is touching the bar.
Pull-Ups are the same as chin-ups, but performed with palms facing away from you.
Remember to touch your chest to the bar.
For variety, try using wide and narrow grips on with both exercises between sets.
(Hold the high and low positions as long as you can to build up to better pull-ups.)
Rows can be performed by tossing a long towel over the bar. A towel may be difficult to grip at first, so be careful.
(a) Hold the ends of the towels and lay directly below the bar. Keep your with arms straight and body bridged. This is the start position for both of the following exercises.
(b) Horizontal Chin-up (Bridge and Curl): turn palms toward yourself and pull the elbows back at your sides.
(c) Horizontal Row: Keep your palms facing away and flare the elbows out. This exercise is important for targeting the rear deltoid and upper back.
(You can make this exercise easier by positioning your feet under the bar and leaning back.)
Towel Pull-ups are fantastic for training grip.
Try tossing a one or two towels over the bar for variety
(Try climbing up the towel as though it's a rope and/or transition climbing from the towels to the bar.)
Finally, Grip Switching is an intense forearm workout.
Start from a pull-up or chin-up position, and switch grips one hand at a time.
It helps to do a slight pull and swing into the grip transition.
When performing as many as you can, be careful not to slip and fall if/when your grip fails.
(Get a good rhythm going for a long sets to make your forearms explode!)
Now, let's see what YouTube has to say about it:
When you get a little more advanced with things, the bar can be placed around waist height for practicing muscle-ups
With a pull-up bar and a little creativity, many muscle groups can be targeted.
Insane amounts of variety. Be sure to check out his other training videos on Youtube
The Thug Workout from the last post also shows a lot of pull-up variations.
Sunday, April 15, 2007 Links and a Vid
The Gym Jones site has gotten a lot of attention lately thanks to the movie '300'.
This is the place where the actors trained to get in shape for the film. Lots of great articles, videos, workouts and information.
Freedom Footbags is where I purchase of my juggling and footbag equipment.
They keep a regularly updated blog, and have lots of videos.
What happens when bodyweight exercises are marketed from the streets? We get Thug Workout.
This video features a lot of great pull-up and push-up variations.
Saturday, April 07, 2007 A new month brings a new graphics.
Now, the site appears to be exploding while your read it! Excitement couldn't be higher.
Physically Balancing Sedentary Lifestyle
It's part of the purpose of the site. Many people find themselves sitting at desks, at a computer or infront of a tv all day. If that descibes your day, balance that out with some physical activity! It doesn't have to be lifting weights or running on a treadmill. Find something that fun that you enjoy doing such as playing basketball, hiking, a fast walk, anything to get your heart rate up for 30 minutes.
Weighted Vest and Sandbag Training
My roommate purchased a 40lb. weighted vest. It has been a lot of fun experimenting with increased resistance bodyweight training (squats, stair climbing, lunges, dips, push-ups, pull-ups, chin-ups, etc.). It's a fantastic tool for pushing your training to the next level.
With the vest and some dumbbells, I assembled a makeshift 85lb sandbag for some amateur wrestling style training. Lugging a heavy bag around is more like real-life, full-body training. This really worked me over, and made me feel strong and confident about what my body is capable of beyond isolated, heavy weight training.
Be careful with this type of exercise. It's easy to want to try too much weight.
Archive
All of the posts from March have been moved to the Archive.
