[Closed] Best way to improve upper body strength

Dumbbells and a bench...
About £60 for a bench, about £20-30 for the weights..

Do you have an android phone? If so, get Jefit as it's an incredible free weights workout guide, otherwise google 'dumbbell exercises'..

DrP

use bodyweight resistance exercises (chin ups, tricep dips, press ups) find a Royal Marine to show you all manner of variety

Or the real cheap option is to do press ups (and variations on those), and chin ups (and the variations on THOSE!)

DrP

EDIT - too slow - curse my bulging biceps limiting mobility....

Bench is a reasonable idea but don't have space

What rough kg value of weights to start with?

ride a Singlespeed,up lots of techy climbs,a lot......

press-ups are an easy option.

Alternate then by doing them flat on floor one day and legs on a chair the next.
You will be surprised how quickly you can build up to a hundred.

Get kettlebells. A 16kg and a 24kg. Too much to tell you here but go to CrossFit.com for videos and Dragon Door.
I SWEAR TO GOD, I've done it all but kettlebells, body weight squats and push ups will see you right.

Take up bouldering.

Get a "starter" 20kg set (so 10kg each side). For MOST exercises (except bench press) that's a good start, as if you're focussing on TECHNIQUE (not just 'wanging' weights all over the shop) then you'll struggle with 10k at first.
The next step would be to get 2 10kg plates (as above, 20kg is a good lift for a starter)

[url= http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9282898/c_1/1|category_root|Sports+and+leisure|14419152/c_2/2|14419152|Home+gym+equipment|14419293/c_3/3|cat_14419293|Weights+and+dumbbells|14419310.htm ]There you go..[/url]

DrP

The crossfit site looks good too.

CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.

Interesting how they fail to mention tubby middle managers and lazy students wishing to impress the fit bird in their class.....

DrP

http://hundredpushups.com/

this is surprisingly effective.

Press up's, dorsal raises, heaves, chin ups, dips. you'll be strong in no time....that'll cover shoulders, chest, back, arms.

Swimming is only good exercise if you actually know how to swim...it's all technique and you'll get put off when some fat knacker with good technique just floats by when you're on max revs.

Surrounded By Zulus - Member
Take up bouldering.

Yep

Buy a fixie and figure out where all the gurt big hills in your area are (for me, they are ALL on my commute)....

Have a 10kg baby who is a real challenge to hold, yet wants you to pick him up all the time...

Both the above seem to have increased my biceps somewhat!

DrP

[url= http://www.fitness-superstore.co.uk/vkr_dip_stations/york__workout_tower/10942_p.html ]One of these...[/url]
[img] [/img]

Don't worry about a bench, though if you do have room I would recommend getting an exercise ball. Can do loads of stuff with that complimented by the weights DrP put above. Also push up bars are good for press ups, protecting your wrists and allow you to get down further.

Past few months I've been doing a lot of press ups, chin ups and sit ups. Noticed a hell of an improvement to my bike fitness through doing it.

We got one of those Powerbar chin up bars that sits on the door frame (no drilling required) for a tenner off ebay. Great investment.

Actually, we have one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Total-Upper-Body-Workout/dp/B001EJMS6K

agree with scott. press ups and chins etc...

these are good...

Hindu Press Up

Kev

Go to the pool

At the end of your swimming session go to the deep end and hang on the edge underwater, raise yourself out and keep going till your upper body is out the water and your arms are straight (basically from a pull up position into a tricep press)

Not quite fit enough, do it in water shallow enough so when you hang on the edge (with straight arms) your feet just touch the bottom, give a small push with your legs and let your momentum and strength finish the move

Getting better at it, do a length underwater and then crack straight into the exercise, once your exhausted, sprint swim back to the shallow end

Getting fitter still, when your doing the exercise, pull and push with enough force that Shen your arms go fully extended into the tricep press you fling yourself in the air a bit

Also do press-ups and sit-ups at home

You need a montage.

😆

I registered just to post that.

There is a lot of nonsense being spouted as usual in one of these threads.

Getting stronger is an incredibly simple thing to do. It gets complicated by people who don't know what they're talking about.

I have a guy in my class spends around 3hrs/day in the gym doing all manner of weird and wonderful exercises and he is built like the proverbial brick outhouse. The other day he was trying to show off by holding a medicine ball out to the side at shoulder height with one straight arm and seeing how long he could hold it for. I whooped his arse - my strength comes from riding my bike and a wee bit of climbing and bouldering. I am skinny and have puny arms, but see to be really strong. 😀

Nonsense ... as opposed to ego stroking? What you have is a developed lactic acid tolerance, something to train for in an all round package but under no guise is it strength

I am skinny and have puny arms, but see to be really strong

Surrounded By Zulus, I dare say the other guy would bench press a lot more than you. Don't get confused by strength and endurance.

Conquerer, I have some good PDF's that used before. Send me a PM and i'll let you have them.

I have a guy in my class spends around 3hrs/day in the gym doing all manner of weird and wonderful exercises and he is built like the proverbial brick outhouse. The other day he was trying to show off by holding a medicine ball out to the side at shoulder height with one straight arm and seeing how long he could hold it for. I whooped his arse - my strength comes from riding my bike and a wee bit of climbing and bouldering. I am skinny and have puny arms, but see to be really strong.

My wife says I always feel really strong when we strip the willow at ceilidhs.

Check these out

I do squats in the front garden with 150% of my bodyweight held straight-armed above my head - teeth clenched and screaming "who's the daddy?" in a Frank Sidebottom voice. I don't think the screaming's necessary but stops me having to make conversation with the neighbours

This worked for Mick Murphy, and he even won a bike race.

[img] [/img]

Mike Murphy’s victory in the 1958 Ras Tailtean has the whiff of a movie script about it. He was a poor labourer who dreamt of winning Ireland’s toughest cycling race . In keeping with the best traditions of Hollywood the 26-year-old underdog, after completing an epic journey, crossed the finish line in Dublin as champion.

The myth that has grown up around Murphy and his exploits is captured in the following quote from documentary maker Liam O’Brien.

In the case of the Kerry cyclist Mike Murphy, ‘The Iron Man’, the truth exceeds the legend and the legend… Well the legend goes a bit like this: he trained with weights made from stones, he made a living as a circus performer, on one stage in the 1958 Ras, after his bike had broken down, he stole an ordinary bicycle from a farmer and chase down the leading pack. It’s said that he rode for three days with a broken collarbone, that he would cycle for forty miles having completed a grueling stage just to cool down, that he drank cow’s blood and ate raw meat .it said he was indestructible.

Haven't confused anything with anything. He was shaking all over the place right from the start, I wasn't moving.

There were a number of other tests that we did where I beat him by a mile. This is leading him to radically change his training and include much more in the way of core stability and also to develop his ability to recruit specific muscles - so he's going climbing and taking up yoga.

Haven't confused anything with anything. He was shaking all over the place right from the start, I wasn't moving.

There were a number of other tests that we did where I beat him by a mile. This is leading him to radically change his training and include much more in the way of core stability and also to develop his ability to recruit specific muscles - so he's going climbing and taking up yoga.

Turkish get up

Great way of improving functional strength (i'm told)

Nah, he's a rugby hooker.

While bodybuilders are big, they aren't necessarily strong.

Sounds like he's still stroking his ego, whilst at the same time joining in with the nonsense he quoted from other posters, bloke trains 3 hours a day I'm not surprised he was shaking from the off, if your going to post crap at least make it believable. And I'm a little curious what muscles are you "specifically" recruiting by climbing, apart from if it's upper body leverage your lats, your traps, your delts, biceps/triceps, brachorad..... and on, same goes for your legs.

I'm not buying the fact that some bloke trains 3hours a day, even if it's crappily and is now gaining more strength from climbing and friggin yoga

The OP post asked for suggestions to improve his upper body strength and overall fitness, he mentioned swimming, so you could assume he likes doing it, if your climbing to improve your strength your climbing badly, if your advocating yoga as a strength builder over 3 hours in the gym, that's some friggin smashing yoga routine you've got going there, not knocking yoga, if it floats your boat great, but it's not 3 hours strength building in the gym

To sum up, your talking nonsense

decent thread gets mired in nonsense. classic.

I'm glad that you're not buying it because you have completely missed my point.

My point being that you can lift weights until you are blue in the face, but if you don't do anything to help you recruit those muscles and use them functionally around a solid core then you will never gain any usable upper body strength.

Climbing is about control as is yoga. You need to be able to control your muscles or there is no point in having them.

This :-
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Or this: -

[img] [/img]

I know which one my moneys on! 😀

My point being that you can lift weights until you are blue in the face, but if you don't do anything to help you recruit those muscles and use them functionally around a solid core then you will never gain any usable upper body strength.

Yeah whatever.

Can we get this back to the original point? Was looking to be useful until the bunfight.

What I'd like to know is how long a decent upper body workout would take. Off to Morzine for the 2nd time this summer and last year the strength in my arms and hands let me down a lot. Even Innerleithen will tire me out too quickly. So, what's a good workout that would focus on upper body/core that I could do in say 30 mins? Also, would this be every day or not?

Equipment wise I have a 20kg weight set.

No mate, it was looking totally hopeless until the bun fight. What you have described suggests that you either have no strength endurance in your forearms and fingers or that you grip the bars to tight. Either take up climbing or get one of those grip strength thingys or a power ball. As for core, get a swiss ball and play with that - learn to stand on it.

Replicate what your dad would have done when "he were a lad". My dad threw 12 stone haybales 12ft high. I ain't that manly but my buddy asked for a big old used tractor tyre from a farmer, took it to his house and now lifts, throws it and so on. You use all muscle groups, do core work while you're there and you'll generate real strength rather than showy gym muscle.

12 stone haybales 12ft high

I very much doubt he did.

Not doubting they were heavy, just not that heavy.