Chest Exercise Question....Guys

[jds]

Chest exercises

Chest exercises

Hello -

Here are the ones I do. They seem to work pretty well - do the chest and shoulders as well.

1. Push ups. At the very start, 4 weeks out of hospital, I stood two feet from a wall, leaned into the wall and pushed back to vertical. Then stood further and further away. Next step was leaning down onto a table. Then start doing "girl" pushups where your knees stay on the ground. Then full pushups. Then start elevating your feet on a chair or (better) one of the Swiss Balls. At the beginning, go for 2-3 sets of 8-12 then work up to longer sets of harder ones.

2. Chair dips or dips with a "negative gravity" machine - the ones where the weight helps you get up. As you decrease the weight, the exercise gets harder.

3. Pull ups - palm in. Start with a negative gravity machine then work toward pulling up your full weight.

4. The rubber bands or stretchy rubber tubes. I loop one end around something and do side pulls in a variety of angles. These strengthen the small muscles around the shoulder (infraspinitus, subspinitus, teres minor, supraspinitus) and prevent you from getting tendonitus in those areas.

5. Bench presses. Going to a gym helps a lot with these to get coaching on good technique so you do not hurt yourself.

6. (a hard one) Do the plank and reverse plank for as long as you can and increase your time. You can see how to do this on a yoga site or learn from a yoga teacher. I have a problem with my left infraspinitus and cannot do this.

With any weight-lifting program, get some coaching at first, start light, work up slowly, and don't lift two days in a row. After lifting, eat something (carbs+protein) soon after to replenish what you used up. Drink lots of water.

To lose man boobs, you need to lose fat. Fewer calories going in than going out is a good way to do it. Building muscle is another good way to do this but eating more fresh fruits/veggies/lean meat and fish and less processed food and less fats accelerates the process. You may or may not lose weight - the added muscle is denser than the lost fat.

Regard -

John

 

[Cooker]

I have started the push ups, overall strength training and crunches.....The chair dips are out of reach for now...those damn things are tough .....but I am working on it...DW says she can feel a diff in my shoulders ........Moobs be GONE

 

[JimL]

Congratulations! It sounds like you're getting the support you needed.

 

[jds]

Easing into chair dips

Easing into chair dips

Hello -

I tried a method for "easing into" chair dips which is similar to "easing into" pushups. I found a couple of methods. Note that chair dips work your shoulders more than your chest.

1. If you have access to a gym with a gravitron, ask a trainer there to show you how to do assisted dips, You can set up a gravitron to have as little or as much (up to full body weight) resistance as you want.

2. If you are using a chair (not one with wheels that can roll), start by sitting down on the edge with your hands on the chair by your sides and your knees at a 90 degree angle and feet on the floor. Scoot forward just a little so your butt is beyond the edge of the chair but knees are still close to 90 degrees. Then ease yourself down just a little, using your legs as much as you need and do shallow dips. As you get stronger, you can (1) move your feet further out so more of the weight is on your arms, (2) dip deeper to exercise new parts of your muscles, (3) do more sets or more reps.

There is a picture of this at http://www.free-online-health.com/chair-dips.htm

As always, start and progress slowly. Take a day off between weight-lifting / resistance exercise sessions.

John

 

[Hot Rod Harry]

I reccomend starting with pushups (which is the same/similar as bench presses).. This will work mainly the middle chest.. With the feet raised up on a chair, doing pushups this way will work the upper chest (same as an incline bench press), For tightening up the bottom of your boobs, which it sounds like you are looking for, you need dips, when done right (slight lean forward, these will target your lower chest (same as a decline bench press). These will also work your shoulders, triceps, and back.

A gym will allow you to do these with lighter weight, but when done with your bodyweight, you will get a GREAT workout..

This coming from someone who once had a 400 lb Bench Press, natural (no roids), and a body weight of less than 198.

Good luck, & take it slow.. Ease into it, and you should see good results within a year..