Excercise question-torso

Grandphoenix

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Alright so I just turned 17 and figured if I don't want to be a fatass like the rest of my american counterparts I should do some exercising.

After observing what needs work I came to the conclusion that I specifically need to focus on my abs and pecks. The abs I figured would shape out eventually and be alright with some situps/crunchs. However, I have no clue on how to work my pecks out so thats when you guys come into play give me some info that you have seen/might have done some good for you.

Thanks~
 
Just mostly focus on chest exercises. I dunno if you going for power lifting for size or just toning. If you going for size, go power lifting. Meaning go low rep, high weight, 8-10 reps. If you just going for a tone then go high rep, low weight, 10, 12-15 reps.

Two good exercises you can do is flies and dips. Flies you lay across a bench, similar to a bench press position and you hold up two dumbells straight up(you may know this). You slowly extend your arms out to your sides(similar as if you were hugging someone) then back up. After about 5-6 reps, you then take the dumbells and rotate them to a dumbell press(very similar to the bench press, except using dumbells) and do about 5-6 more reps of them, no break, for a total of 10-12 reps. If you power lifting then go for about 8-10 reps. Repeat for about two more sets. You could do them individually as well if you choose too. Like dumbell flies only or dumbell press only for 8-10 or 10-12 reps. I choose to mix the two for it helps give you a better "burn" and it works multiple muscle groups in your chest area. This was how I was taught.

Here are examples for each:

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/PectoralSternal/DBFly.html
http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/PectoralSternal/DBBenchPress.html

Dips is another good thing to work pecks on. If you are overweight though this could be tough for you. You could do elevated dips which are much easier because you prop your legs up which is less weight that your lifting. But I believe however, they focus more on triceps. For dips you'll need two parellel bars to hold yourself on. You hoist yourself up with your elbows locked and legs dangling in the air. You then proceed to lower yourself down and push yourself back up again and just keep repeating. Very similar motion as pushups except your body is vertical rather than horizontal.

Something like this:
http://www.building-muscle101.com/parallel-bar-dip-exercise.html

Not sure how accurate these sites are as far as information goes. I'm just using them for illustration. What I'm telling is what I was taught.

Theres also bench press, and inclined bench press which is more upper chest/shoulders. Push ups is good too. Theres a machine excerise where you sit down with your legs straight out and you have two handles attached to the machine that you pull towards you up to your stomach and you extend them back out. I can't remember the name of this exercise so I can't really show an example. This is a good way to build peck muscles as well. If you want that "V" shape upper body, focus on laterial exercises like lat pull downs. You'll probably need a machine for those. You grab a bar hanging over your head while sitting down and you pull the bar down to around your chest area and back up again. Very similar to pull ups except your sitting down. Those build your muscles around your side and gives you that "V" shape.

If your new to these exercises, just start off with light weight so you can get used to the motion and doing them correctly. Then up the weight. That way you don't hurt yourself with an accident or pull something. Don't rush things. Your muscles will build over time. Its a very slow process. Just stick with it. Remember not to build your muscles two days in a row. They need time to heal so they can grow. Sit ups is the only thing I can think of that you can get away with doing everyday. They are a special type of muscle that doesn't break down like our limb muscles do. Theres a name for this but I can't remember it but it allows that muscle to be worked on daily because of a certain type of resistence it has.

Good luck with acheving those pecks lol :). I hope I was somewhat helpful.
 
Bench press works just as well as the flies. Although the flies and dumbbell bench may work you a little more. Sit up and crunches are weak ab exercise that will only end up working if you do a lot of them in a row. You might want to try jackknives, you take your arms and legs straight out above the ground and go up until shoulder blade are off the floor and go back down keeping your body as straight as possible.
 
Flies were one of my favorites, hammer press & reverse was always a good close to the bi/tri days.

Keep it balanced, do a muscle group each day. Lower back & shoulders are important, don't overlook them. Hyperextensions were a favorite too:

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/exercises/hyperextension.html

Usually need to add a plate weight if you're going for definition.

edit: if you do try the butterfly lift, twist the bottom of the bells inward when you reach the top of the motion. This mildly includes the muscles we would call "underboob" on a chick.
 
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If you really want nice abs you need to focus on correct diet and some cardio. Unless you are one of those guys with the natural "nice abs" gene, you will need to do alittle more than just situps and crunches.

I'm assuming you haven't been doing any exercise up to this point when you say you just turned 17 and want to start exercising. So unless you are already skinny, you might want to start some cardio to burn off the layer of fat on your stomach. If you are really dedicated, a morning run a few times a week will boost your metabolism early in the day and help to burn fat better. Sprint cycles are a nice core exercise, but very difficult if you are just starting out.

Diet is a big part of the game for working out. You should really try to eat every 2-4 hours and eat lean meat, fruits, and vegetables. Although that is hard to do as it gets expensive to eat right. Stay away from drinks with carbs and stick to water except for after workout stuff like protein shakes or whatever.

For your situps and crunches, make sure you do the reps slow and controlled. It doesn't matter how many you can do if you are just busting them out. When I do crunches, I hold the rep for about 3-4 seconds exhaling, bring my shoulders back down, take a breath, repeat for about 25 reps and 4-5 sets. I also do leg lifts.

Good luck starting out with this stuff. Main thing to keep in mind is dedication. It takes time to see results, so keep up with it and you should be good.
 
Yeah eating right is main key. If you have extra money, order a book called the abs diet. Contains a lot of really good information about what to eat and how much of it you should eat. Keep around 5 to 6 small meals a day. Eating more boosts your metablism much higher.

Sodas are a bad thing. I knew someone in high school that lost 5 pounds just switching to water only and nothing else. Gaterade is a pretty good choice too. Milk is good for protein along with eggs(the perfect protein meal some say), steak, other lean meats as Jimm mentioned, and 100% natural peanut butter. Natural peanut butter doesn't have preservatives and contains healthy fat that your body uses for energy and it has high protein. And since theres no preservatives that means you have to keep it in the fridge as weird as that may sound. Plus you have to stur the oils in it really well or it won't get rock hard.

Theres a lot of extra work and money eating healthy but its worth it. I've lost 10 pounds when I started the diet and I'm already naturally skinny. I've been on the diet for about 2 years. I break it from time to time but only for a day or two. Sometimes three. I'm usually pretty good with sticking with it. I'm not ripped though. My problem is I keep working out off and on. I work out about 3 months or so, then stop for a few more months and then I get back into it. I need to stay consistant with it. Having somebody to workout with helps boost motivation too. I work out alone so the motivation is hard for me to keep up. But yeah, get that book if your interested in abs, really useful. Its even useful for those that just want to lose weight and isn't really going for abs. Its a healthy way to lose weight. None of that low carb crap people do thats very unhealthy. Carbs are the main fuel for working out. Plus striping your body of carbs does a bunch of other things too. Some I can't remember but a friend of mine was telling me about it. Stuff about your digestive track and lowering pH levels in your blood ect. My brother got really ill from being on it to long. His body just didn't react to it well. He got sick twice and he was on it twice. Soon as he went on it, he got really ill. Puking, dirrea and whatnot. Plus you just gain all that weight back just as fast as it came off. And gaining and losing weight back and forth like a seasaw is unhealthy too.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b...arch-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=abs+diet

Can't remember what year I have but there are newer versions of this avaliable now. Contains good workout plans too. Even covers on circuit training which is a good for high intensity workouts. Covers different things you can do, the time limits in between, and how often to do them ect..
 
Well I'm not completely out of shape. I play some tennis every other day. I'm a bus boy at work so lift some slightly heavy tubs full of crap. Then in the spare time when not in school/work/gf I give myself the Dance Dance Revolution workout at arcades doing 10 footers (Really hard songs) for the legs/cardio.
Does sex count as a workout also? lol

So for someone who dosen't have a small gym/barbells etc is there any exercises possible for pecks without equipment?

I'm not trying to become muscular/ripped just a flat stomach and a flat chest cause I dont wanna be in my party years with petite man boobies lol
 
Well I'm not completely out of shape. I play some tennis every other day. I'm a bus boy at work so lift some slightly heavy tubs full of crap. Then in the spare time when not in school/work/gf I give myself the Dance Dance Revolution workout at arcades doing 10 footers (Really hard songs) for the legs/cardio.
Does sex count as a workout also? lol

So for someone who dosen't have a small gym/barbells etc is there any exercises possible for pecks without equipment?

I'm not trying to become muscular/ripped just a flat stomach and a flat chest cause I dont wanna be in my party years with petite man boobies lol

As a guy you really don't want a flat chest. Just use your high school weight room GP if you have one.

The eating 2-4 hours is a load of crock. If you were really smart you would know that no matter what you eat is going to be turned into carbs a.k.a sugar. Sugar is also the first thing that is burned off not fat. That is the last thing the human body absorbs before turning into waste is sugar. So you aren't really accelerating anything. You're just adding more sugar into your body which is defeating the purpose of burning off the sugar.

Either way it is all carbs. Cutting down or cutting out pop helps a lot with sugar in take. Either way cardo on an eliptical glide or jogging will give you cardio. Don't use freaking tread mills. They suck hands down if you're going to drop money on something for running get the eliptical.

The dips will help with the chest. For even look of abs you can do Russian Twists Which is where you sit on the ground feet flat on the floor you lean yourself back turn right touch the floor with BOTH hands go to the left touch the floor with BOTH hands and then go back to the middle repeat for however many reps you wish to. Russian twists are also great for cracking your back. I have gotten so many good cracks doing those.

You might want to strengthen your back as well by doing stuff like a tabletop, some call it elbows and toes, all you do is lay on your stomach tuck your elbows into your arm pits and lift up onto your elbows and toes keeping your butt down. Hold for 15 to begin with and once you don't struggle with 15 go to 20 then 25 etc.

As another thing protein shakes don't do anything. All protein really does is help the muscle repair faster. But muscle gain is based off how much bleeding it does because it bruises over and become muscle. The shakes don't do much if anything at all trust me I have tried them. Most of the authors of the exercise books just want you to buy products they get endorsed by or their own products so they get more money.

Also do not drink gatorade or powerade before running or activities that is a bad idea. The only time you should be drinking the drinks with electrolytes etc is after you've been doing strenuous for hours, and actually lost more sugar than you are suppose to. Remember you actually need sugar in your body, but 2-4 hours between every sitting 5-6 small meals is outrageous.
 
Heres your anti-fatass gameplan:

Make shoulders and squats your priority, ditch the soda and sugary crap, carry around a gallon of water and make sure you drink that daily. Drink 100% whey, and take some Glutamine and a multivitamin.

If you eat a boatload of carbs like all the other fatasses out there, cut that down too.

Focusing on chest is just a waste of time, it will grow with the rest of your body. If you want a HUGE chest, you can work it harder, but you'll get better results working your whole body regardless.

You'd be amazed at what you can acomplish with a set of dumbells and 1 hour of your time per day.
 
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Alright so I just turned 17 and figured if I don't want to be a fatass like the rest of my american counterparts I should do some exercising.

That had me rotflcopter for like 30 minutes. XD

ps. At 17 you should already have the 6-pack, thats the norm now for kids your age.
 
That had me rotflcopter for like 30 minutes. XD

ps. At 17 you should already have the 6-pack, thats the norm now for kids your age.

eh somehow I still get some without it ;)

Besides you know when I played ff11 who has time to exercise! xD

Yeah I cut pop down at the beginning of this year one of those new years resolutions and I haven't fell for it once. Only eat sweets/deserts occasionally now also.

I was trying to image "tuck your elbows into your arm pits" that one just isin't popping up and I don't think your elbows are supposed to go into their respective arm pit :D lol

Alright well I'll give some look into it and try some stuff out if I get decent looking maybe I'll post a pic and be like look I'm not fat and lazy :D...ok maybe I'll be lazy still :)
 
eh somehow I still get some without it ;)

Besides you know when I played ff11 who has time to exercise! xD

Yeah I cut pop down at the beginning of this year one of those new years resolutions and I haven't fell for it once. Only eat sweets/deserts occasionally now also.

I was trying to image "tuck your elbows into your arm pits" that one just isin't popping up and I don't think your elbows are supposed to go into their respective arm pit :D lol

Alright well I'll give some look into it and try some stuff out if I get decent looking maybe I'll post a pic and be like look I'm not fat and lazy :D...ok maybe I'll be lazy still :)

First of Negrosimmo you're horribly mistaken on every American teen has a 6-pack. Blame fucking MTV for that one. Step into a real high school and tell me how many of them will actually have a 6-pack.

GP just trust me keep your arms straight and it's not exactly the pit, but it is damn close enough. Ya a dude said it best with the whole thing here if you're going to work out work out the whole body so you aren't disproportionate.
 
If you don't have equipment you are just going to have to do basic stuff like pushups. I find the best results come from actually having equipment to use, but that isn't always an option. Some good pushups are the elevated ones where you put your feet on a chair and do the reps that way. All of them should be slow and controlled.

When I was in middle school and early high school years, my routine consisted of those, situps, crunches, squats, calf raises, and triangle pushups. I would do 3 sets of each always until failure. It will get to the point where it gets kind of boring to exercise like that though with so many reps. But if you are not worried about bulking up and don't want to go to a gym or buy equipment, that should keep your muscles somewhat toned. Usually for muscle tone and endurance you want to go for high reps and low weight; for muscle strength and size you go for high weight and low reps.
 
Call it drink, call it soda, call it by its brand name, call it carbonated water, please, call it anything but POP
 
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