upside-down pushups.

[CapiCrimini]

Ive been doing upside down pushups for a while now. So for those of you who know better. Please help.

1. It seems to work my upper back more then arms. and my shoulders too.

I have to start from a higher position. When I start with my head to the ground I'm not strong enough to push up.

2. How many should one be able to do. I can get about 2-3 in one sitting. More if I take breaks inbetween.

How are you supposed to keep balance. I really have to lean against the wall with one or two feet. I can't seem to find a balance.

 

[hardwork]

Originally posted by CapiCrimini
1. It seems to work my upper back more then arms. and my shoulders too.

They're supposed to.

Originally posted by CapiCrimini
I'm not strong enough to push up.

Don't worry about it: you won't probably be that apt until you're really used to doing them. It took me forever to get it down, and I still struggle sometimes.

Originally posted by CapiCrimini
2. How many should one be able to do.

It really depends. A weightlifting friend of mine couldn't even do one.

Originally posted by CapiCrimini
How are you supposed to keep balance. I really have to lean against the wall with one or two feet. I can't seem to find a balance.

That's how you balance. Face the wall on your hands and knees, kick up and towards the wall, and plant your feet with your knees at about a 90° angle—that should keep you going. (I only know of a very small group of nutjobs who are able to do handstand pushups without support. I doubt it's really worth trying to do )

 

[cessna]

By upside push-ups do you mean these
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exerpop.php?Name=Handstand+Push-Ups

I can usually do about 10 against a wall, after that the blood starts going to your head and I'm done for that one

Cheers

 

[Alex_L]

Never tried this looks cool i'm going see how many I can do right now.....

 

[Alex_L]

NO CHANCE ..am I doin that lol i'll stick with my bench press and shoulder presses ... I can Manage it but it's awkward as hell all your blood rushes too your head ..... I guess it's good if you aren't a member of a gym and you don't have n e weights at home, and you wanna work out your Delts hard.

I would recommend you do plenty of upper body stretching exercises before (everytime) you attempt too do n e of those feels like you could quite easily tear or damage somit in that position.

 

[CapiCrimini]

Cessna. Do you fly? i'm working on my private right now.

I am talking about that link. Except I invert the position. meaning my back is towards teh wall.

Alex, I have all the workings of a basic gym[suana, hot tub, bench press, treadmill, ect, ect.] at my house, plus there are also places around here that I can do more.

I actually don't feel ackward in the position. I am used to being on my head. i used to be able to do a head-spin when i was in better shape.

I'm not sure how to get into a postiion facing the wall. i'm going to go try right now.

 

[CapiCrimini]

No ****ing way... your going to break something going up like that. unless you handstand up to the wall there is no way to "kick up" you have to walk up the wall...

 

[CapiCrimini]

*******... I thought i could do a backwards kickflip into it... ended up smashing my face into the wall... It really streched your back when you come down.

 

[DJBen]

Capi, quit with the pointless posts.

They're pretty solid. Weightlifters, generally speaking, have a hard time with over-head pressing... this is my new military press for a while. I can do like... 4.

As for never being able to balence like that, I hate to break it to you, but I can. Handstand for 2 minutes [walking around a bit to keep it up]. It's just a matter of balence and control, when you can do them like that, it benefits you a lot more.

 

[Soma]

I can do about 25 with my stomach facing the wall. 20 with my back facing the wall. But I've been doing this for a little while now. You might want to check out some of Matt Furey's stuff like his Handstand training book, which is how I first started doing this.

And yeah, you don't kick up into position when you're stomach is facing the wall, you walk up it.

When you can do ten handstand pushups, try doing them one handed. I can only do 3 of those. haha

I have yet to be able to handstand pushups without using a wall but that's my goal.

 

[Alex_L]

Originally posted by Soma


I have yet to be able to handstand pushups without using a wall but that's my goal.

I don't understand why u'd want too do that unless your were some kind of gymnast?

 

[CapiCrimini]

I don't understand why u'd want too do that unless your were some kind of gymnast?

Well For one... It's much easier and you don't get dirt from your feet on the walls or put tiny dents in by accident.

Two, can you imagine the kickass bragging rights.?

 

[dockta]

Why would you bother wasting your time and energy doing such presses?...... unless.... it is for entertaining purposes.

Silly

 

[Alex_L]

Yeah I see your point would be good too brag about lol...

but overwise it does seem abit pointless if it's just for building your shoulder muscles up u can do it just as easily sitting up right with a barbell and weights....

but for flexabiity / support mucles the idea sounds kind of cool.... by doin this kind of exercise would you eventually be able too walk on your hands and balance?... if so how long would it take?... if not how would you go about it?

 

[DJBen]

If you're just doing it straight up, you use a lot more balence and you can start stabilising your body a lot better. In weightlifting it's very hard to make both sides perfectly balenced... one part is always slightly strong/bigger than the other unless you put real work in.

plus, if your feet are resting on something, you're still taking away valuable weight you could be pushing up.

Soma, try them between two chairs and see how that feels. You get much more depth.

 

[CapiCrimini]

but for flexabiity / support mucles the idea sounds kind of cool.... by doin this kind of exercise would you eventually be able too walk on your hands and balance?... if so how long would it take?... if not how would you go about it?

Walking on your hands is much easier then being still. if you can balance for one minute on your head. Your ready to try a headspin.

on the other hand, You should be able to walk on your hands before you can balance on them...

I've been doing this about two weeks, maybe less. I've noticed my endurence on my head[the point before I get too much of a blood rush] the enderuence is geting much better. And it's almost becoming natural being on my head. Normal, persay. I've been doing it every other day or so. 15 minutes a day. Not all of it puchups. some of it just sitting thier on my head thinking.

My balance has improved a lot. i can balance on my hands for about 5-10 senconds.

 

[Soma]

Actually, working with weights will in no way come even close to developing the type of strength you get with body weight exercises. It's all about functional strength. If you want to get BIG to show off, then yeah, hit the weights. But if your goal is to get STRONG drop the weights and start working with your bodyweight.

I want to do handstand pushups without a wall because it's a huge challenge to do so. Yeah, part of it is ego, but i don't talk about my training with people unless they ask, which is not often. No one really says, 'Hey, can you do handstand pushups?!" so the chance to say, "Yeah, I can even do them without a wall!" won't come very often. But I mainly want to do them because of the necessary strength, balance, and coordination, needed to do even one. Fvck man, THAT is functional strength. Awesome sh!t. For an extreme example of functional strength look at Gymnasts or performance artists like those in Cirque De Soleil. For something closer to home, take a look at breakdancers. I'm not a gymnast but combat training is a big part of my life. Though I'm only 5'7 135 pnds I beat my friends who are 5'10 190+ pounds when it comes to anything physical, like wrestling, boxing, running, arm wrestling, indian wrestling, whatever.

Our bodies were designed to work as a whole unit. Not as individual pieces. Even if you do compound exercises with weights, which is better than targeting a bodypart, it's still not even close to the level of bodyweight exercises.

Oh yeah, DjBen, you're right about using the chairs. For some reason though it slipped my mind. A while back I tried using 3 phone books stacked next to each other to support my hands. Well that was a stupid idea, haha. The slipped out and fell on my face. Ouch! Using chairs is a much better idea.

 

[DJBen]

heh.... someone's not really thought for themselves... it sounds like I'm reading matt fureys stuff.

Listen, everything that he says is all well and good. It all works in theory. The military have done all that for years, and they've done resistance training. Yes, the body is designed as a complete unit to work and balence everything out. But weight training has it's place.

Cycle through bodyweight excersizes, then weightlifting, then back to bodyweight/resistance. What you'll be doing then is gaining size and strength, without losing power, flexibility or speed. It's amazing how many people dont think about doing that.

 

[CapiCrimini]

Cycle through bodyweight excersizes, then weightlifting, then back to bodyweight/resistance. What you'll be doing then is gaining size and strength, without losing power, flexibility or speed. It's amazing how many people dont think about doing that.

ohh i DO weigthlifting too. I was just curious about this.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[Soma]

someone's not really thought for themselves... it sounds like I'm reading matt fureys stuff.

hahah it sounds like someone's making assumptions which have no basis in reality. Why is it so hard for you to consider the possibility of me knowing about, and choosing to practice bodyweight exercises based on my own experience, before knowing about Matt Furey? This isn't really about me not thinking for themselves. It's about someone else. I won't say who but his name rhymes with DjRen. ;p

Anyway, truth is truth. Whether you hear it from me, from the bum on the street, or from Matt Furey...the source doesn't matter. It's the content of what is said that does.

To give a bit of background...

Did bodyweight exercises since I was a kid, which was taught to me by my dad when I was little. As I grew up I was always stronger than my much bigger friends and gained the reputation of being freakishly strong, haha. When I graduated high school I started to think my dad was just biased against heavy weight training for no good reason and dropped the bodyweight stuff and started training with weights. Did that for several years. At the end of the third year I started training using the Body for Life program (more specifically Anthony Ellis's program) and gained 25 pounds (20pound of muscle) in 3.5 months. Yes, the program works. Stayed on it for about a year. I have experience in both types of programs. And yes, I've done mixed programs.

Anyway, though I got much bigger I found myself, pound for pound, losing my strength and flexibility.

To make a long story short, I went back to bodyweight exercise, lost my MASS but gained a LOT of overall strength. I was amazed at the difference. I'm also a dancer and while I don't breakdance I have a ton of friends who do. Some of the strongest motherfvckers you'll ever meet. My former roommate was an gymnast training for the olympics. Again, one of the strongest guys I've ever met. And wow, what a fvcking ripped build. That fool took every chance he got to walk around without a shirt, haha, and I don't blame him.

-Soma