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gym equipment
Can anyone recommend which exercise equipment I should be using at the gym to help with upper body strength? I do push ups at home, but at the gym Im sort of "looking around" going "hmmm…". My daughter suggested the pull up bar…which…I cannot even do yet.
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6 Replies
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I would look through the different workout that you can find on the oxygen site: http://www.oxygenmag.com/Training/Articles.aspx
I would also STRONGLY suggest looking at the conditioning that Veena had here on the site. So far in the 30 day start up I have found exercises that have made my shoulders scream and mostly because I have not trained myself properly. If you only work on the large muscles and do not train teh small ones I can pretty much guarantee you will end up with an injury.
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Do they have an assisted pull up machine? It'll have a pad you can put your legs on and then handles above. You set the weight and hop your knees onto the pad. Then you lower and pull yourself. It's like a pullup but you don't have to bear your full weight. Also, lat pulls and overhead presses are great for your back.
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i used to be unable to do pushups… Before my pole dancing hobby, i would go up to the pull up bar and have to kind of hop up into it and barely could hold myselft up. In spite of being embarassed, I did it anyway… My thoughts were, "hey! I'm a girl… gimme a break! At least I'm trying and if you have a problem with that, go F* yourself!" 😀
Anyway- keep attempting the pull up bar, because soon enough, you will find that you WILL be able to do a pullup and slowly come down. Then you will find that you can do 2 consecutive pullups, then 3, then 4! and on and on…
you can do it 🙂
as far as other equipment, I don't know…
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With pull ups, work the reverse. Get yourself into position using a chair or stool and then slowly lower yourself down. Just like in pole, if you work the reverses it helps you get the forwards in time.
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I had a gym membership before but now I quit because I don’t like to use most of the machines and weights at the gym. It’s just not natural for my body. To improve on pullups and pushups, like the ladies here suggested, you can do the negative versions of them. Or you can get a Lifeline resistance band to assist your weight with pullups and pushups. Using the weight assisted pullup machine isn’t the same as the real pullup.
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Is there anyone who can take you on a tour of your gym? Most gyms offer this sort of thing, and if you can tell them what parts of your body you're looking to work out, they can tell you which machines to use.
As for advice on what to use, I agree with many of the suggestions already made, like pull-up negatives or an assisted pull-up machine, and checking out Veena's strength lessons, but here are some more suggestions by muscle group:
Biceps: Free weight curls, or a bicep curl machine
Triceps: Free weight overhead lifts, or a tricep press machine
Lats: Lat pull down machine, or a weighted rowing machine, or rowing machine
Pecs: push-ups to start with
Deltoids: Free weight lateral lifts, or a deltoid machine
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