Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Upper Body Workout

Here's a way to do chins -- defined here as using a palms-forward grip, as opposed to pull-ups, which use a palms-backward grip. You get a little bit better workout with chins using the pronated grip.

And -- if you hold your legs in an L-sit -- you get the upper body stuff, plus some ab work. My form is lousy in this example -- the knees should be straight, the toes pointed, or the judges take off for it; and the best way for full ROM stretch is to go for a straight-arm hang between reps, but this was my third set of the day. I did it that way the first set, honest.

(I also only did six or eight reps, instead of my usual fifteen or twenty, just to, you know, keep the video from getting too long. And so I wouldn't make all the young guys feel too bad ...)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm impressed. I struggle to do that many in a set, but it seemed effortless for you. Is your back supposed to be angled that much? I'd think a right angle between back and legs would be better, but that's purely speculative.

I was very happy to get a pull-up bar for my apartment. I tend to do what you call pulls, because they're easier for me (I'm bicep-centric). I got the Perfect Pull-Up, but I'm skeptical whether that's really a better way.

I'm also tooling around with those gymnast exercises when you basically curl your body up under the bar, then dangle with your back parallel to the ground for ~60 seconds. One of those and I really feel it. Excuse my ignorance at not knowing what they're called.

Steve Perry said...

I vary the hanging position; sometimes I lean way back and point my toes almost at the ceiling in a U-sit, other times I'll stay relatively straight -- can't completely, or I'll hit my nose on the bar. I do try to work the muscles from different angles.

My ceiling is too low to do a muscle-up, where you come up in a chin and just keep going to a triceps extension above the bar.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I'll blame my inability to do that on ceiling height issues, too. Heh. That's pretty hardcore.

The move I was referring to earlier is called a front tuck lever (as evidenced here). When one gets way better than me, one can pike out one's body.

Cy, the guy in the America's Got Talent vid I posted, has shown me some amazing feats of strength. He can dual-grip a stop sign and bring his body parallel to the ground, and do crazy acrobatics into and out of handstands. I'm just happy when I can hold a handstand for 20 seconds.

Steve Perry said...

The fabulous flag -- I was never able to do that one, but I could catch a pole under one armpit and extend out that way.

Nice vid of the bros. on your side JL.

Ximena Cearley said...

Nice. My teacher does leg lifts by hanging from the bar and with legs straight touches her toes to the bar. I can get 90 degrees in a stiff wind...