I have finished playing my tenth year of rugby league and I am not playing again and in the summer I find that I put on a bit of weight because I'm not training and playing. These cubing workouts will help me keep myself physically active. I might even try to not stop till I learn a new algorithm.
If you were that size and didn't have a 6pack, I'd be surprised. Are you anorexic(lol)? You're actually wasting your time and don't even need to do ab exercises, b/c you'll still have them. Remember, the only way to build strength or muscle is to gain weight. The only way to lose fat and have 'defined' muscles is losing weight. Btw, I bodybuild, see the link in my sig.
I'm working on gaining weight... There's literally not enough food in the house Being a teenager and all, I eat probably 1.3 times as much at meals as anyone else, and then I have mini-meals in between those. So...
breakfast - bowl of cereal, milk, juice, sometimes an egg
second breakfast - toast, cereal, milk, etc + something protein-y. Like spoonfuls of peanut butter.
lunch - 2 sandwhiches (meat [ham and cheese type things], pb&j, apple/raisins/orange/etc)
afternoon snack - usually a cheese stick or some peanut butter crackers or a granola bar
dinner - whatever my mom fixed me for dinner
nighttime snack - protein bar, crackers, chips, cereal, etc. Pretty much anything that I haven't eaten yet that day.
I've tracked my calorie a few times recently, and I'm usually eating between somewhere around 3000 calories a day (maybe 50-70g of protein, 120g of carbs (?)). I'm trying nowadays to eat healthier and not eat chips, junk food, candy type things all the time.
If you're the type of person who's willing to work for a physique to be proud of then you're already on the right track. I definitely think you'd benefit much more from trying to put on muscle at this point rather than attempt to make your six pack even more defined. I was right around where you are now (5'11 125) this time last year, and I look and feel so much better now that I've put on 40 pounds from eating heathfully and starting to lift. Listen to Mike the man Kotch, you won't regret it.
Oh and btw, you always want to have a lot more pulling volume (back) than pushing volume (chest). If you don't it'll create rounded shoulders, discomfort, muscle imbalances, and general posture imbalances. Anything where you push is hitting the anterior delts (front of shoulder) and anything where you pull is hitting the posterior delts (back of shoulder). People are way too obsessed w/ the mirror muscles (chest, biceps, abs, quads), when they should really be concerned w/ areas such as back, hamstrings, triceps, and lower back. If you don't have a stronger posterior chain (back half of body), life's gonna suck.
Tips?
All I've got for exercise is a pull-up bar (I can do ~3 chin-ups if I start with my arms slightly bent and don't descend all the way. Once my arms are straight though, they're locked and I can't go back up lol), a road to run on, a bike (though I'm not sure if it even keeps air in the tires. They might be popped... :/ ), I think the heaviest dumbbell I have is 8lbs, but I might have a 15lb one (two, technically) in the garage, and body weight (for push-ups!).
So now I'm gonna ask you this, cause you might know. My hamstrings are really tight. Let me explain...
I've been taking karate for 4 years now. We stretch at the start of every class (toe touches, splits, just normal stretches) and when I started I could touch my knees on the toe touch type stretches. I've now been stretching for 4 years, and at the start of every class I stretch myself to the point that I physically cannot go any farther. We do group stretches sometimes where you have other people pull you, but I can hardly get any looser. I can now touch my lower shin/a little above my ankle in those stretches. I'm possibly one of the tightest people there. (btw, 4 classes a week) My parents have had a doctor look at my spine to see if I have sculiosis (is that how you spell it?) cause apparently that can make you not flexible, but my spine is perfectly straight, or so the doctors say. Anyway, I'm so tight that when we do hamstring specific stretches (like raising one leg as high as we can and putting it on a bar at that height, keeping our leg straight, and then reaching for our toes) my entire leg shakes like crazy. I looked this up and that's apparently a sign of incredibly tight hamstrings.
Lastly (for now), at the karate belt tests/promotions, here's what we do.
3 mile run - sprints, squats, duck-walks, and pushups at the 1.5 mile point before we turn around and go back
150 jumping jacks, push-ups, and sit-ups, split into 6 sets (25 each set). The jumping jacks are easy. The sit-ups are easy (though not as easy as the jumping jacks). The push-ups are impossible. I can usually do the first set of 25 without rest. The second set I can maybe make it to 20 before I have to drop my knee and rest for a few seconds. The third I can do a few (maybe 10-15), but for the last 3 it's pretty much: push-up, rest, push-up, rest, etc. Tips for making the push-ups easier?
Then we start the karate portion. We run through all our techniques, forms, etc. Everytime someone makes a mistake, we do 10 pushups. After about 3-4 hours of torture we move onto more torture. The good part is that we don't have any more push-ups at this point. We do self-defense first. I need to have 2 defenses prepared for: punch to the head, punch to the body, front kick to the groin/belt/stomach, roundhouse kick to the body, and side-kick to the body. This isn't too hard, because I already know what I'm gonna do, but they have the black-belts or huge 6' 4" guys do the attacking. Plus, I'm exhausted by this point. After this we start sparring. I'll have 4 fights on this test, one of which will be 1vs3 fight. This part is possibly the worst. My legs are exhausted (the stances may not look hard, but they are murderous after 5 hours), and I'm out of breath. I can barely fight. My punches are sluggish and slow, I can't kick, etc.
So... Any tips? By the time it's finished we've usually done >600 pushups. Anything that you guys can give me to make these easier is greatly appreciated, even if it's not going to make much of a difference by this coming test (sept. 29th).
Thanks!
It'll be decent enough at first. What kind of lifts should I do to build up the same muscles I'll use for pushups (biceps and triceps)? Just normal curls or what?
It'll be decent enough at first. What kind of lifts should I do to build up the same muscles I'll use for pushups (biceps and triceps)? Just normal curls or what?
Why not pushups? You don't even need weights for those. If normal pushups are hard, do them on an incline or on your knees.
Pushups work more than just your arms. If you're doing them properly, you should be using your chest muscles, and your core should be getting a workout to keep your body tight and your spine straight. The closest lift would probably be the bench press, but that mostly leaves out the core stabilization work.
Basically, if you want to get better at pushups, do pushups.
@OP I would strongly recommend, if you want to get the most out of your workouts, to not cube at the same time. Bodybuilding is all about a strongly focussed mind, and if you aren't 100% focussed you won't get nearly the results you could.
Why not pushups? You don't even need weights for those. If normal pushups are hard, do them on an incline or on your knees.
Pushups work more than just your arms. If you're doing them properly, you should be using your chest muscles, and your core should be getting a workout to keep your body tight and your spine straight. The closest lift would probably be the bench press, but that mostly leaves out the core stabilization work.
Basically, if you want to get better at pushups, do pushups.
Boring
But I'll keep doing them. I'm starting the hundred pushups program.
I think I'm doing my pushups right. I've got my hands a little outside my shoulders and I keep my back straight, going all the way down until my chest or nose touches, depending on how strong my arms are feeling at that moment. Then I come back up and [I think I] lock my arms all the way up.
Then I repeat.
Once they start to get hard, I drop to my knees, rather than not going down as far. As they get harder I slide my knees in a little, but I usually get bored well before my knees are too close to be doing good pushups.
Boring
But I'll keep doing them. I'm starting the hundred pushups program.
I think I'm doing my pushups right. I've got my hands a little outside my shoulders and I keep my back straight, going all the way down until my chest or nose touches, depending on how strong my arms are feeling at that moment. Then I come back up and [I think I] lock my arms all the way up.
Then I repeat.
Once they start to get hard, I drop to my knees, rather than not going down as far. As they get harder I slide my knees in a little, but I usually get bored well before my knees are too close to be doing good pushups.
Here's what you should do. Tell your parents to take away all of your cubes, computers, and food. Tell them to give them back to you once you have done "x" number of push-ups. Then you won't get bored of them.
I've tracked my calorie a few times recently, and I'm usually eating between somewhere around 3000 calories a day (maybe 50-70g of protein, 120g of carbs (?)).
Here's what you should do. Tell your parents to take away all of your cubes, computers, and food. Tell them to give them back to you once you have done "x" number of push-ups. Then you won't get bored of them.
Pushups work more than just your arms. If you're doing them properly, you should be using your chest muscles, and your core should be getting a workout to keep your body tight and your spine straight. The closest lift would probably be the bench press, but that mostly leaves out the core stabilization work.
But they do use your arm muscles SOME. Maybe they use your chest muscles more, but unless I'm not good at identifying the location of soreness, it uses your arms too.
I don't drink I doubt that I'm eating that much fat, so I'm gonna lean toward bad tracking... It's hard because my parents get really angry at me (don't know why) when I try to count calories and stuff throughout the day. I think that they think that I think that I'm eating too much, but I'm not sure.
But they do use your arm muscles SOME. Maybe they use your chest muscles more, but unless I'm not good at identifying the location of soreness, it uses your arms too.
Sure. I'll give you a quick lesson in how muscles work. Essentially, muscles pull (or squeeze/contract) rather than the opposite (push/unsqueeze/uncontract). So, for example, if you have a straight arm and you bend it in, that is the biceps working (imagine in your head your biceps are contracting). When you straighten your arm again, that is your triceps working (imagine your triceps are contracting).
So try to think about which two muscles you are predominantly using when you do pushups. The correct answer is in the spoiler.
Pectorals and triceps. Remember as your arms are bending, it is gravity pulling you down, not your biceps working. Actually, as you press down towards the ground your pectorals and triceps are providing resistance (i.e. the muscles are trying to prevent themselves from de-contracting too fast by counteracting the pull of gravity. It's kind of a balancing act; on the way down gravity is providing more force than the pull of the pectorals and the triceps, and on the way up the pectorals and triceps are providing more pull than gravity).
Sure. I'll give you a quick lesson in how muscles work. Essentially, muscles pull (or squeeze/contract) rather than the opposite (push/unsqueeze/uncontract). So, for example, if you have a straight arm and you bend it in, that is the biceps working (imagine in your head your biceps are contracting). When you straighten your arm again, that is your triceps working (imagine your triceps are contracting).
So try to think about which two muscles you are predominantly using when you do pushups. The correct answer is in the spoiler.
Pectorals and triceps. Remember as your arms are bending, it is gravity pulling you down, not your biceps working. Actually, as you press down towards the ground your pectorals and triceps are providing resistance (i.e. the muscles are trying to prevent themselves from de-contracting too fast by counteracting the pull of gravity. It's kind of a balancing act; on the way down gravity is providing more force than the pull of the pectorals and the triceps, and on the way up the pectorals and triceps are providing more pull than gravity).
How come your tricepts are used more if you have your hands close together (this is what my dad says)? And what about with your hands out farther than usual? Why are fingertip pushups harder?
EDIT: If I go down like I'm doing a pushup and hold it there, does that work my biceps or just get rid of the spring/elasticity in my triceps before I come back up?
And what about staying up and holding still there?
Pressure equals force divided by the surface area over which that force is exerted. Whether you do pushups on your palms or just fingertips, the force remains the same because your body still weighs the same, but when you only use your fingers, the surface area decreases by a lot. Dividing by a smaller area means a much greater pressure than with just regular pushups.
How come your tricepts are used more if you have your hands close together (this is what my dad says)? And what about with your hands out farther than usual?
To be honest my knowledge of physiology is not that good (it doesn't need to be, I'm not a personal trainer or anything ). But let's work through this intuitively. The triceps straighten the arm from the pivot at the elbow, while the pectorals bring the arm in towards the body from the pivot at the shoulder.
Now as your hands get closer together the elbows will bend more as you lower yourself to the ground (compared to a wider grip), and will also start to bend in towards your waist rather than out to the sides. So naturally the triceps are doing more work because they have to contract over a much larger distance (i.e. from a fully bent elbow as opposed to a half bent elbow). I guess the pectorals do a similar amount of work, but this is just less noticeable.
But then if we take torque into consideration it makes sense that the pectorals do more work as the arms get further apart. Imagine a see-saw, and you put a 20kg weight on one side (we'll say the right side), just next to the pivot (centre) of the see-saw. If you stand just to the left of the pivot and push down it won't be too hard to bring your side to the ground. But if you put that 20kg weight further to the right, as it gets further away from the pivot it gets harder to bring your side down if you stay in the same spot the whole time. So as your hands get further apart (i.e. the 20kg weight) it gets harder for your pectorals (i.e. the person trying to push down).
If I go down like I'm doing a pushup and hold it there, does that work my biceps or just get rid of the spring/elasticity in my triceps before I come back up?
And what about staying up and holding still there?
Your biceps don't work at all. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "spring/elasticity", but if you hold yourself in a position low to the ground both your triceps and pectorals will be working to resist the pull of gravity. This is called the "negative" part of the rep, that is, the part where your muscle resists the weight, rather than overpowering it (imagine a bicep curl, the part where you let the weight down is the negative, and the part where you bring it back up is the positive).
In a push up, when you go up and hold it, if your elbows are locked out, i.e. completely straight, it essentially takes all of the force out of the arms, so the triceps no longer do any work. In this position the pectorals do pretty much all of the work resisting gravity.
So the distance of your hands then is almost like a lever, with the point that your muscle "pivots" from being the fulcrum?
Law #3: As elastic energy decreases, muscle involvement increases.
The science: When you lower your body during any exercise, you build up "elastic energy" in your muscles. Just like in a coiled spring, that elasticity allows you to "bounce" back to the starting position, reducing the work your muscles have to do. Eliminate the bounce and you'll force your body to recruit more muscle fibers to get you moving again. How? Pause for 4 seconds in the down position of an exercise. That's the amount of time it takes to discharge all the elastic energy of a muscle.
Apply it: Use the 4-second pause in any exercise. And give yourself an extra challenge by adding an explosive component, forcefully pushing your body off the floor -- into the air as high as you can -- during a pushup, lunge, or squat. Because you're generating maximum force without any help from elastic energy, you'll activate the greatest number of muscle fibers possible.
You got the part about the fulcrum right, but not the lever. The lever is the muscle itself. Take this diagram, for example (found on google image search). The man pushing down is like the muscle, and the distance the rock is from the pivot is like the distance the weight is from the body. The more bend in the elbow, the closer to the pectorals the weight is, and vice versa.
I understand now about spring/elasticity, and that's right. To get the most out of exercises you should have slow, careful movement with a pause to prevent what I would have called the 'bounce back' effect.
Being a teenager and all, I eat probably 1.3 times as much at meals as anyone else, and then I have mini-meals in between those. So...
By the time it's finished we've usually done >600 pushups. Anything that you guys can give me to make these easier is greatly appreciated, even if it's not going to make much of a difference by this coming test (sept. 29th).
