Sit ups and push ups.

[D_Doewell Dadong]

Started doing them last night. Didn't realise how out of share i was.
Did ten of each, sit ups weren't a problem. But really felt it on the front of my shoulders with th push ups. The plan is to add one more of each every day, should be doing 100 a day in 3 months, might include the sofa to do tricep dips later on.

 

[D_Tintagel_Demondong]

Two chairs of equal height are great for dips.

I'd like to see how this turns out. Please keep us informed. If you don't plateau around 70 or so in 3 months then I'd be very impressed!

 

[D_Doewell Dadong]

Two chairs of equal height are great for dips.

I'd like to see how this turns out. Please keep us informed. If you don't plateau around 70 or so in 3 months then I'd be very impressed!

When you say plateau do you mean i'd get to 70 then i'd stop increasing the reps?

 

[vince]

Nice to hear you're determined Oldham.

Be careful with the situps. You can hurt you neck or back and they don't really target the abs that much. There are better abs exercises such as crunchs, captains chair, the plank. You can google them.

After you get up to 20 push ups, you can help yourself if you warm up first. Do 5, rest a bit, then do t10, rest and then do twenty. I do 15, rest, 20, rest, 35, rest, then go for the max, which is 80 at the moment. Oh yeah,, stretch your tripeps and shoulders and pecs during the rest periods. The warmup gets the blood flowing into the muscles.

good luck

 

[D_Doewell Dadong]

Anything i do needs to be done at home, crunches are similar to sit ups, but your only range of movement is when you can feel tension in the abp, when the tension ends, you lower yourself back down through the tension, and back up again. Thats right isn't it?

 

[D_Doewell Dadong]

Anything i do needs to be done at home, crunches are similar to sit ups, but your only range of movement is when you can feel tension in the abp, when the tension ends, you lower yourself back down through the tension, and back up again. Thats right isn't it?

 

[D_Andreas Sukov]

pretty much. generally if you feel that its your stomach not your legs or back doing the work your doing it right.i think, someone will correct me in a sec. i tend to do around 30 each, but im never consistant in doing them unfortunately.

 

[javyn]

Why not go to the gym? Squatting heavy under a squat rack will work half of the muscles in your body with that one exercise. Also, you will contract your abs so hard squatting that it will make situps and crunches pointless.

 

[D_Doewell Dadong]

Why not go to the gym? Squatting heavy under a squat rack will work half of the muscles in your body with that one exercise. Also, you will contract your abs so hard squatting that it will make situps and crunches pointless.

I used to go to the gym, but it started to get very expensive. With the demands from work (60 hours a week including travelling) and home demands i'm to tired to go to the gym untill quite late. The other thing is the cost of the gym 35 a month is to steep for me. There is a local gym that charges per visit or per week (a bit like average joes in dodge ball) and i will go to the gym as and when i can. But not often enough to make it part of my routine. But even them i can't do any major weights because i don't have anyone to go with.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

Be careful with the situps. You can hurt you neck or back and they don't really target the abs that much. There are better abs exercises such as crunches, captains chair, the plank. You can google them.

Some people are having second thoughts about crunches, vince.
Stuart McGill is a professor of spinal mechanics at Waterloo U. in Ontario ... so his specialty it about as close to the mark here as you can get.
McGill claims that crunches apply the same pressures on discs that lead to their eventual rupture, and counsels against doing them.
His website is here.

If you must do crunches, then McGill has his own ideas about how to do them:

• One leg is bent with the knee flexed to 90° while the other leg remains relaxed on the floor.
• No cervical (upper spine) motion should occur, either chin poking or chin tucking.
• For anyone experiencing neck discomfort, place the tongue on the roof of the mouth behind the front teeth, which helps to promote stabilizing neck muscle patterns.
• Brace the abdominals. This involves tightening the abdominal muscles as if you're about to take a punch in the gut. When the brace is performed correctly, the abdominal wall is neither hollowed in nor pushed out.
• Curl up against the brace, and then breathe deeply in the "up" curl-up position while maintaining the brace. Remain in the up position long enough to take a few deep breaths.
​

This technique will challenge rectus abdominis while minimizing compressive load to the lumbar spine. Try it the next time you train your abs. You'll be surprised at how such a simple exercise can easily be made more challenging and effective.

 

[Incocknito]

It helps to do 'half press ups' first to warm up if you aren't used to them either because its the first time you are doing them or because you stopped doing them.

For half press ups you just rest on your knees and put your arms out in front as per a normal press up and then then press down...then up. Looks silly and doesn't feel very intensive but it really helps as a warm up.

Press ups are one of the best exercises you can do. Ten sets of ten should be more than enough. You might want to try for more though. When I was a teenager I was able to do (after practice obviously) two sets of fifty.

Now I'm lucky if I can do ten :redface: (full press ups)

Just so you know, sit ups alone will not get you a six pack or necessarily make you lose weight in your stomach area. That area is related to your total fitness / body fat.

For optimum results you should incorporate some legwork such as running, or walking or my favourite...skipping. With a skipping rope.

Cycling would be good too but good bikes are expensive nowadays.

 

[D_Doewell Dadong]

I have a pedal bike and did a 22 mile round trip recently without any problems. There are variations of sit ups that i can do to target different areas. I'm not doing the sit ups to get a six pack (carrying to much......er......padding for that) just to get back in the habbit of exercising.
With regards to half push ups i find them far far far to easy, and full push ups just a little to hard. Typical really.
I'll maintain the small increase each day in the push ups and sit ups and see how it goes. I'll try and include more gym work in. But the main bulk of the work has to be able to done at home.

Some good input here.

 

[D_Tintagel_Demondong]

When you say plateau do you mean i'd get to 70 then i'd stop increasing the reps?

I mean that you can't keep increasing the reps indifinitely; you likely won't be doing 1000 pushups after 1000 days, for example. You'll eventually reach your limit. On the other hand, Mr. Google says that the world record for non-stop pushups is 10,507.

 

[vince]

Some people are having second thoughts about crunches, vince... snip..

Thanks for the info Senor. I agree and have to say I have not done a crunch in over a year. I just threw it out there as an alternative to the classic high school gym class situp that we use to do. Anything is better than those.

The plank is my favourite 'core' exercise. Along with squats and push ups and a bit of jogging and swimming, I don't really need anything else to stay in relatively good condition.

Oldham you don't need to join a gym to have really good workouts. You also save a lot of money and hassle.

 

[D_Portelay Porquesword]

I do squats, the plank and do some ab work on the exercise ball. It supports my lower back while I extend/stretch my core with it. I also use the Torso Track.

I hate sit ups.

 

[D_Doewell Dadong]

11 sit ups and 11 push ups last night (and did 11 cheating press ups too)

12 tonight.

 

[D_Doewell Dadong]

I mean that you can't keep increasing the reps indifinitely; you likely won't be doing 1000 pushups after 1000 days, for example. You'll eventually reach your limit. On the other hand, Mr. Google says that the world record for non-stop pushups is 10,507.

Well i'm 10497 days away from a record

 

[D_Doewell Dadong]

12 and 12 last night.

Did 6 normal press ups and changed to the half press up because i didn't feel like i was going deep enough in the std position. So once i switched i did 12 half pushups but made sure my nose was near as damit touching the floor.

 

[D_Doewell Dadong]

Got home, had tea, fell asleep woke up on the sofa at three in the morning. So didn't do any last night.

But did do 13 of each this morning.

 

[D_Doewell Dadong]

15 last night