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Oi TeamLiquidians. I have found myself in a bit of a conundrum today.
So I get off for break on Thursday (finally -_-) and I go home for about a month. One of the things I planned on accomplishing over break was starting to get my sorry ass back into shape for next semester's frisbee season. I planned on doing running + lifting. Running I've got down (4 years HS XC - NYS champ meet senior year), so I'm not worried about that. I also figured I'd have lifting covered aside from a general direction which I was going to get help from my little bro on (he wrestled and played soccer in high school, both of which had lifting programs).
Now here's the problem:
While I've been away at school, the little bastard sold our weight bench, since neither of us have used it in a while. Perfectly legit, I just had no clue. We don't have a gym in town, the nearest one is a 20 minute drive up the highway and I don't have my license. The most we might have is a few 5/10 pound dumbells. -_-
Is there any other way besides pushups/situps to help me get some decent lifting in while I'm home, or would I be better off waiting until I come back to school for that (we have an amazing recreation center)?
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Try getting a chin/pull up bar. They usually cost around $20 and you can install them between doors. They can assist you in performing a decent half-body workout with minimal investment.
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United States12607 Posts
There are lots of bodyweight-only exercises you can do that are pretty good, especially for working out your core. Try situps, planks, pushups (including ones where inbetween pushups you support yourself with one arm and try to touch the ceiling with the other, they're a good shoulder workout), V-ups, crunches, bicycles, triceps pushups, wide-armed pushups…
A pull-up bar would be a huge help because one of the biggest challenges to having no weights is doing anything that is back/bicep intense (pulling exercises) as opposed to chest/tricep intense (pushing exercises).
Also Schwarzenegger has said that the best non-weight workout is just flexing. Consider it, a lot of flexing will make you feel like you've worked out (but I'm not sure how much muscle building you could actually accomplish this way).
Bottom line is don't use this as an excuse to procrastinate you can whip yourself into pretty good shape doing just pushups even, especially if you are running. My brother was just abroad in japan for a few months, without access to any gym or anything. He did a ton of pushups though, and when he got back he was noticeably more buff.
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For cardio I suggest interval training in the form of running or sets of burpees done for time. You say you have running down so maybe focus on the latter, burpees require little time or space and are a great all-round cardio exercise.
Temporary/cheap strength training can be more difficult. Bodyweight exercises such as pushups, pullups, squats and situps can get you far if you are a beginner. If they are too easy, increase the difficulty, eg by elevating the feet for pushups, one-legged squats, adding whatever small weights you can improvise etc. If these exercises are still too tame for your needs, consider purchasing day passes to the local gym, or purchase a cheap bag of sand/rock to lift; these methods will do fine for a month but are inferior to proper training in the long term.
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Sweet deal guys, thanks. I was just literally like "Oh shit" when my brother told me he sold the bench.
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I recommend you slightly or ultra simplify your username as it seems its too complic4t3d and unnecessary and only through this solution will your conundrum be solved
-Thank you
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On December 16 2009 14:30 unionbank wrote: I recommend you slightly or ultra simplify your username as it seems its too complic4t3d and unnecessary and only through this solution will your conundrum be solved
-Thank you
just call him wc8
btw you tried using google? "working out at home"
try the 300 spartan work out
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Google some bodyweight progressions such as planches and levers, that should work your core and body sufficiently. I dont think you really need to be bench pressing very much for frisbee...
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Isn't the 300 workout a bit extreme? Unless you're into that sort of thing.
I've always like SL5x5. Try it gogo.
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Nothing beats intervals if you want to improve your lungs ability to transfer oxygen, fast. I used to do running intervals but now I'm doing intervals at max speed on a cross-trainer, which actually works fucking well. I was a bit suprised
Other than that, you can work your core area so well without machines. I've gotten visible, strong abs in a month by doing core-exercises 3-4 times/week with no weights. Crunches, umm I don't know the english words for the others but yeah, google it. Sit-ups/crunches can definately improve your abs like hell if you make them properly
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On December 16 2009 15:31 decafchicken wrote: Google some bodyweight progressions such as planches and levers, that should work your core and body sufficiently. I dont think you really need to be bench pressing very much for frisbee...
Yeah, the benching wasn't so much for frisbee. I would like to put on a bit of muscle mass. I'm the stereotypical white nerd - I'm a frame of skeleton with a skin canvas slapped on and that's just about it.
Frisbee's the #1 priority, getting a bit bigger is #2.
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pull-ups / chin-ups with a bar like Cabium said.
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On December 17 2009 03:29 vx70GTOJudgexv wrote:Show nested quote +On December 16 2009 15:31 decafchicken wrote: Google some bodyweight progressions such as planches and levers, that should work your core and body sufficiently. I dont think you really need to be bench pressing very much for frisbee... Yeah, the benching wasn't so much for frisbee. I would like to put on a bit of muscle mass. I'm the stereotypical white nerd - I'm a frame of skeleton with a skin canvas slapped on and that's just about it. Frisbee's the #1 priority, getting a bit bigger is #2.
Ignoring that, upper body strength is pretty useless for frisbee. Dips and chin-ups are probably all you need.
Applicable low weight lower body exercises
Bulgarian split squats Single leg jump curls Single leg back extensions (if you can find something that can act as a roman chair) Single leg squats/pistol squats Jumpsquats with weight (even just a 45 lb bar is ok if you really explode into it) Plyometrics - box jumps and depth jumps, you can vary the height, landing on one foot, landing at different angles and if you can find something heavy to deadlift, you can do that, or do a single leg deadlift.
For core, I don't know the names as well, but there's the usual block transfer from a crunch position (one by one transfer objects from the right side to left side and vice versa) medicine ball-simple tossing to a partner ""-toss while doing a situp ""-toss as far as you can behind you while performing a jumping motion ""-explosive rotation at the waist
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