Need Ab/Pullup Exercise Advice

[TarekF]

I do all body weight exercises, cause I don't want to buy anything and prefer to do exercise in the morning before school.

Im not super fit (in fact since I turned vegan I lost 30 pounds and still have 20 or so to go) and before I lost the weight I was extremely un-fit. However now instead of only running, I have decided to incorporating body weight exercises into my program.

I have a few problems
1. I can't challenge my abs: By this I mean that I can do a lot of sit ups with little or no burn. Even V-ups or the sit-ups where you bring your knees and chest together don't challenge my abs. For some reason I have very resilient abs, but I don't want to have to do like 100+ situps before getting tired. Is there any ab exercise that can really challenge my abs and not take too long of a time.

2. I suck at pushups, I know I just have to adjust them to make them easier and keep at it though.

3. I can't really do a full pullup (I didn't buy the equipment, actually a charter school right by my house has a cool home made rig and a bunch of dilapidated equipment that I use because the school doesn't even have a weight training program.)
So I kind of need some advice on how to adjust the pullup so that I can get to the point where I can do a full one.


Maybe I will put up a training log but for now I just need some advice from some of you super exercise gurus here

If this isn't the right forum I will repost

Thankee
TRF

[Kryptonite V]

I just need some advice from some of you super exercise gurus here

Hi, it seems you're talking to me

However now instead of only running, I have decided to incorporating body weight exercises into my program.

Good idea!

1. I can't challenge my abs: By this I mean that I can do a lot of sit ups with little or no burn. Even V-ups or the sit-ups where you bring your knees and chest together don't challenge my abs. For some reason I have very resilient abs, but I don't want to have to do like 100+ situps before getting tired. Is there any ab exercise that can really challenge my abs and not take too long of a time.

- Sit ups are not an exercise for abs, but mainlyfor the hip flexors.
- Try crunches.
- Add planks.
(google the terms if you don't know the exercises, i'm too lazy to explain )

2. I suck at pushups, I know I just have to adjust them to make them easier and keep at it though.

Do them on your knees, go slowly all the way down and push up as hard and fast as you can. Try a full push up at least twice a month until you succeed at doing one.

3. I can't really do a full pullup (I didn't buy the equipment, actually a charter school right by my house has a cool home made rig and a bunch of dilapidated equipment that I use because the school doesn't even have a weight training program.)
So I kind of need some advice on how to adjust the pullup so that I can get to the point where I can do a full one.

Put a bench or something behind you where you can rest your feet on, so that you can assist yourself by stretching the legs. When your arms are straight and you're hanging from the bar, the legs must be bent and the feet on top of the bench.

Good luck with your goals!

[baldy]

1) Try the plank. Hold it for 60 seconds and you should get the burn you are looking for. (I am not saying this will give you a 6 pack, that might be harder)

2) You got it

3) You need to make yourself lighter to "assist", either bend your knees and get someone to hold your feet or bend your knees and put your feet on a chair. Keep at it, pull ups are a brilliant exercise.

Lots of guys on here do bodyweight exercises have a look at the training logs. I know papaya does his pack of cards workout.

[Konstantin]

The plank is great, as is the side plank. Holding a weight when you do a sit up can help too, as can doing an incline.

Last year I was doing heavy numbers of sit up because I was able to do too many. If you try to do as many as possible in 10 mins or 1 hour than can be harder. Or several sets, eg 120, 105, 90, 75, 60, 45.

Press ups are brilliant so stick with them. Try using an incline which has your hands higher than your feet. This is why stairs exist - you can move to a lower stair as you progress. And doing knees-down press ups means you can do clap press ups, different hand positions etc. If you're doing small nos of regular press ups, try doing sets (eg 5,5,5,5) or pyramids (1,2,3,4...7,8,7,6,5...3,2,1) to build up your strength. Allow 20-30 secs between pyrmid steps.

Pull ups rock too, just do small numbers when you can.

[TarekF]

Yeah I can do like 5-10 pretty regular pushups. I think your right papaya, I need to start to do sets of pushups.

Actually I do crunches I just call them situps sometimes. Thanks for the advice. The plank takes the cake with you guys so I will do it. Im not really looking for a six pack or a "sculpted" body, I just would like to have tight and strong muscles plus I would like to lose the rest of my weight.

I think I saw a chair w/o a seat cushion in the "weightlifting" part of the recess area, Ill see if that works.

Any recommendations on sets that I should do for pull ups?

[Konstantin]

Any recommendations on sets that I should do for pull ups?

If you can't do one, try doing one with assistance - use a stool or stepo and put more weight on the arms, just use your feet to give yu that little bit to do the pull up. Do this often and the strength will come my friend.

[TarekF]

Okay, thank you all.

Next month ill be doing one handed pull ups RAWR

[XkillerX]

pressups: do several sets of several different kinds of pressups to activate all of your muscle fibers

pullups: borrow some dumbells or a barbell and do biceps curls until your arms are strong enough to pull you up for the first time. after that you'll be fine.

abdomen: forget situps, crunches and shit. put you metatarsals (forefoot?) up on a chair, desk or bench, and then do a plank. if you do it right you can transfer more than 80% of your bodyweight to the front - a normal plank transfer less than 50. hold it until failure. several time

also consider doing squat jumps (check out the "other sports" section of VF on that)

[TarekF]

pressups: do several sets of several different kinds of pressups to activate all of your muscle fibers

pullups: borrow some dumbells or a barbell and do biceps curls until your arms are strong enough to pull you up for the first time. after that you'll be fine.

abdomen: forget situps, crunches and shit. put you metatarsals (forefoot?) up on a chair, desk or bench, and then do a plank. if you do it right you can transfer more than 80% of your bodyweight to the front - a normal plank transfer less than 50. hold it until failure. several time

also consider doing squat jumps (check out the "other sports" section of VF on that)

Thanks a lot for the advice

Squat jumps are some of the best exercises in my opinion, very active but also good for muscles, I do them and regular squats in the morning too (but I dont need help with them)

[Konstantin]

I do them and regular squats in the morning

Do Hindu Squats instead, they're far more effective.

[Clem Snide]

I do them and regular squats in the morning

Do Hindu Squats instead, they're far more effective.

I've just become interested in Hindu squats. Are they entirely safe? The demos I've seen involved knees going way out over the toes, which looks like it could be pretty stressful on the ol' knee.

[Konstantin]

My physio is concerned about Hindu Squats. When I first read about them I read about targets like 500 in 17 minutes and 100,000 in a year. That seems to me to be a receipe for knee problem, and my physio looked shocked at the suggestion.

The thing is that they are such a great exercise I find smaller numbers are very effective. I think the most I've done in one run is about 90, and over a week maybe 400. They're great to stick in a deck of cards, or just to do a set of 40 to make sure your quads don't get forgotten.

[TarekF]

Dont want to sound stupid but, what are hindu squats?

Could one of you link something?

[Konstantin]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jPSVpo4mzNI

http://www.coffeerecon.com/HinduSquat.gif

http://www.mattfurey.com/hindusquats.html

Also try the Hindu Press up - google or you tube for how to do it.

[Clem Snide]

My physio is concerned about Hindu Squats. When I first read about them I read about targets like 500 in 17 minutes and 100,000 in a year. That seems to me to be a receipe for knee problem, and my physio looked shocked at the suggestion.

The thing is that they are such a great exercise I find smaller numbers are very effective. I think the most I've done in one run is about 90, and over a week maybe 400. They're great to stick in a deck of cards, or just to do a set of 40 to make sure your quads don't get forgotten.

Hmm, I'll think about including them in small numbers then. I kind of like some of Matt Furey's theories on these squats, but then some of the things he claims look a little like quackery to me. I've yet to find any really convincing information on this exercise, but it intrigues me.

Then again, I looked at your links and maybe I've made my mind up after reading what someone wrote in the comments.

All you chumps complaining about joint pain are just making excuses to stay weak and feeble. Any fool can develop fake, nonfunctional, puffy muscles with minimal reps of free weights. It takes testicular fortitude to do hundreds of hindu squats. The endurance developed is obvious when I nail your girlfriend pile-driver style. POW!

10,000 Hindu Squats for me tomorrow.