Exercise

[Gurm]

So I need to get some weights.

Turns out my old barbells are gone the way of the unicorn (ought to be around here somewhere, but it would take a virgin of pure heart to flush 'em out).

But since we're poor this month - anyone know any good exercises that can be done with body weight as resistance? OTHER than situps, pushups, chinups, etc.?

I gotta get a plan of action here, being able to do 100 pushups is no good if you haven't exercised any of the OTHER muscles on the upper body, and it's been SO LONG since I worked out seriously that I'm afraid of hurting myself.

Anyone got any links to good personal training sites?

- Gurm

P.S. Yeah, this is part of my ongoing "Gurm reform" campaign. I'll post before and after pics once I've trimmed down a bit. I'm shooting for no gut by Christmas. I have 3 months...

P.P.S. Maybe my real goal outta be to "look good in a tunic in time for the ROTK premiere"... Julie has this nice "medieval peasant wench" outfit...

[Tjalfe]

Go find some nice heavy rocks.. they are free

Triceps can be worked out using your body for resistance, doing dips with a chair or something.
Calf raises on the stairs.. if done one leg at a time, it would provide a fair bit of resistance.
Don't forget to do some cardio while you are at it.. jogging etc..

[ZokesPro]

Do you have a backpack? And heavy stuff to put in it? Try jogging a few miles witha backpack that weighs 30-40lbs, it makes all the difference.

[UtwigMU]

6-pack of 1.5L bottles filled with watter.

[Gurm]

Ding Ding Ding!

Excellent idea Utwig! And it's a known weight, too!

Fear not folks, I'm doing Cardio. Jogging, and also my parents lent us their Nordic Trak.

- Gurm

[Wombat]

A counter or sturdy desk can be used to do dips. Water weights have already been mentioned. Milk jugs aren't bad either, though a bit light. Lots of ab and leg workouts can be done using the wall for resistance.

Also, good luck with the weight loss plan, but don't get discouraged. I put on muscle for a few months before I started losing fat.

[Jammrock]

A good leg strengthening excersize that Grecko-Roman (sp?) wrestlers use is simple and extremely effective. Put a broomstick, like pole or hands behind the head. Stretch your right leg outso it's almost straight, while the left goes to a rough 90 degree angle. Now jump, switch leg positions in midair, and repeat.

It's killer.

An excellent no-impact ab excersive is holding leg lifts. Lie on your back, arms to the side with legs together and straight, and lift your legs up in the air. Experiment with the angle to work different sections of your abs. There are two bonuses to this excersize. #1 - No impact, which means no undue stress on joints and back. #2 - It excersizes your lower back muscles a lot, which is great for lower back pain.

For pecks, arms, traps and other sections of the upper body you can do variations of pushups:

- Triangle pushups are great for triceps and inner peck muscles. Make a quasi-triangle with your thumbs and pointer finger, then do pushups. Make sure your elbows point out from your body.

- Wide pushups are great for the middle to outer pecks, trapezoids (the upper-middle back muscle that attaches to the lower neck) and bicep. These are like normal puchups, except you put your hands out about 1 foot (0.3 m or roughly the length of your upper arm) out from your chest.

- Dipping pushups are for the triceps and upper/inner/lower pecks. Your hands are places so they touch the side of your chest at the mid peck. Keep your elbows in toward your body as your pushup.

- Fingertip pushups work like a normal pushup, but also work finger, hand, wrist and forearm strength. Do pushups like normal, but on your fingertip pads. Unless you're a bass@$$ in which case you can do them on your actual fingertips.

- Clapping pushups work more your arm speed, endurence and physical toughness. Do a pushup like normal, but accelerate yourself off the ground, clap at the peak of your upward motion and catch yourself on the way back down. These bad boys will wear you down like nothint else.

If you want to do standard curls and things like that, but are short on cash, you can always fill up a plastic milk bottle with sand and/or water. Half-gallon or gallons, which ever one works best for you.

Enjoy!

Jammrock

[Paddy]

Me, i like to lift.


Usually i will just go for the one pint... but on a good day.. i can do two...

[gt40]

Originally posted by Paddy
Me, i like to lift.


Usually i will just go for the one pint... but on a good day.. i can do two...

yep - it's variable resistance too - it gets lighter the more you lift it.

[Paddy]

And when it gets too light, you just fill 'er back up

[KvHagedorn]

Long, long ago, I had a huge jar of pennies built up from emptying my change.. I rolled them all up and built dumbells from the rolls by binding them all up with strapping tape and wrapping them around the ends of a LONG penny roll custom made with typing paper. Worked pretty well, actually. Not a huge amount of weight, but you sound like you are at about the level of muscle tone of a longtime coma patient, so it should be a good start.

[DukeP]

What utwig said.

In fact, using an ubalanced weight (like 4 shifting 1.5kilo water botles in a plastic bag in each hand) is pretty darn good for all of your middle and upper body muscles.
I train handweights standing on a round flat board with half a ball beneath it. Requires quite some concentration to keep the balance - add 10 kilo weight in each hand and alternate standing on each leg.
Especially good for shaping sides, stomach and back.
Used it since i was a prof. wind surfer.

Besides, having a good sense of balance never hurt.

Good luck!
~~DukeP~~

[Fat Tone]

My Dad uses a long rubber band for rehab exercises after breaking his knee over a year ago. You can do all sort of stretch & resistance stuff with a little imagination. He also straps small weights to his ankles when doing them.

T.

[Kooldino]

Re: Exercise

Originally posted by Gurm
But since we're poor this month - anyone know any good exercises that can be done with body weight as resistance? OTHER than situps, pushups, chinups, etc.?

Hahahha, you're asking a bunch of computer nerds how to exercise? :P

Pushups (and varients of) are always great. To work your chest more, spread your arms farther apart, and to do more tricepts, bring them closer together.

Another good variant is to put ONE hand on top of a briefcase or something about 4" high, and do pushups like that. Switch sides and repeat.

You can also hang your legs off the bed, keep them horizontal, and then pick your legs all the way straight up (keep your knees locked).

Chin ups/pull ups are great too. Vary grips.

Just do them every night. I have some pics of me around from college before I started lifting, when i was doing pushups and situps every night. Got me ripped as hell.

Also, running is a great excercise.

P.P.S. Maybe my real goal outta be to "look good in a tunic in time for the ROTK premiere"... Julie has this nice "medieval peasant wench" outfit...

ROTK?

Return of the King?

[Jon P. Inghram]

OMG, Gurm is a real LotR fanatic! Oh wait, we just bought a LotR Risk game last night. I, the Dark Lord, smushed the puny green elves/horseback riders/eagles with my army of red goblins, Nazgul, and Cavetrolls.

Oh, and back on topic, ever seen those handy white plastic US MAIL boxes, the ones that say "PROPERY OF US POSTAL SERVICE" on a side? I'll fill one of those up until it's crammed full of books and use it as a weight for various different exercises.