Can you do your "Ups?"
Mastering three basic "old school" exercises for a better body.
Can you do your “Ups?”
What is the “Ups” you might ask? The “Ups” I am talking about do not deliver your mail. These “Ups” however do deliver results in the form of a stronger midsection, toned triceps, shoulders and chest as well as better defined back an biceps.
The “Ups” I am talking about are the Pull Ups, the Push Ups and finally the Sit Ups. You probably remember these exercises from grade school perhaps. I know those might be times you would like to forget, maybe you were the overweight kid, maybe you were the small kid, heck you might have even been the smelly kid.
Those days may not have been your favorite thing to look back upon. You could do a couple of Sit Ups and a few Push Ups (probably with bad form, but I’ll let that pass since hey, you were a kid.) Pull Ups, well I won’t even get into that since there is a good chance you can’t do one Pull Up now…but don’t worry your gym days are behind you and the fact that those exercises might have been hard for you, well that is about to change. We here at WorkoutTrainer.com going to help you conquer your “Ups” with these simple tips.
The Three Basic "Ups"
First Up (get it First “Up”, I’m so witty) the Sit Up.
We all know the Sit up as the first exercise that we learn to do for our stomach right? Did you just say you hate Sit Ups? What is one thing you can do with things that you hate? You can ignore them. So that is exactly what we are going to do, ignore the Sit Up. The Sit Up movement primary utilizes muscles known a psoas and hip flexor to bring your torso upward, under utilizing the abdominals in the exercise. Instead focus on Abdominal Crunches or an Isometric move known as Prone Iso Abs to work your midsection check out the video here:
Second the Push Up.
Start the movement by placing your hands on the floor just beyond shoulder width apart. Keep your back straight and your knees straight and parallel to the floor. Slowly lower your body so as to touch your nose to the floor and then return to the start position by explosively pressing yourself upward. Again, it is imperative to keep your back and body as straight as possible throughout this movement. If the exercise is to difficult to begin with then allow your knees to stay bent on the floor and work your way up to doing standard Push Ups. Check out the article “Are your workouts Progression” for more advice on different levels of Push Ups.
Finally we have the dreaded Pull Up.
The Pull Up is usually the most challenging of all of the up movements. Now I know I told you to sometimes ignore things you don’t like…that doesn't work this time. The reason being Pull Ups are a very good exercise to do and can help you build leaner arms and a more toned back.
The first thing you need for a Pull Up is a bar. I personally recommend the Iron gym Pull Up bar. It’s very sturdy and you don’t have to worry about damaging your doorway. I would also start by using progressions such as a spotter or bench underneath of you to help build up arm and upper back strength. Using resistance bands is also a great idea to help you start. Check out this video of each progression and of the forms so that you can see the correct way to do a Pull Up and take advantage of using the “Ups.”
