Beefing up the arms, shoulders etc....

bartman100

As someone approaching middle age and not spending enough time on the bike, I'm starting to slide southwards into the classic flabby arms, moobs and beer gut physique. Aside from more cycling, and lifestyle & back and knee injuries makes this hard at present, what is the best exercise I can do to try and arrest the slide? I have considered:-

- rowing machine - expensive and more focussed on cardio-vascular perhaps and thus too similar to cycling??
- weights bench and weights - cheaper but the thought of it bores me
- press ups, crunches, squats and yoga - cheapest but least hardest to maintain from a motivation pov??

Thoughts?

city_boy

Weight (fat) gain/loss is predominantly down to diet rather than how much exercise you do. You can't exercise your way out of a poor diet. It is likely that you have fallen into bad habits regards your diet and I would look at that first. Make sure you avoid sugar, refined carbs and processed foods. Base your diet on lean proteins, vegetables and fruits.

The best exercise is the exercise you enjoy and are motivated to do. Eating right and doing more cycling will fight off the middle age spread. If you want to do something else then try and do stuff you enjoy - football, tennis, swimming, join a class such as cross-fit for example or enter yourself into an event to give yourself some motivation and focus for training. It could be a single sport event like a cycle sportive or a 10k run, or why not a triathlon to give you a mix of sports and builds on different types of fitness.

Just a few ideas...hope it helps...and good luck.

kingstonian

Rowing is an excellent all-round exercise. But it really isn't arms-specific. Also, if you do decide to try rowing as a form of exercise PLEASE ensure you learn the correct technique. It is actually a fairly easy technique to learn as long as you have decent coordination, but doing it wrongly can swiftly create problems.

I also agree with City Boy, diet is key here.

JayKosta

Calorie control to lose body fat.
Push-ups, chin-ups, pull-up, and other similar exercises for muscle development.
Use a 'step bench' for cardio exercises.

Results and visible change will be slow, but you need to start now to be in better shape next year.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA

ctc

Get the ebook version of 'Simple and Sinister'
Get a kettlebell
It's a good, general purpose routine that also covers flexibility

meanredspider

CTC wrote:

Get a kettlebell
It's a good, general purpose routine that also covers flexibility

I was going to suggest a kettlebell too. A bit more fun and flexible than weights and lots of videos on YouTube to follow.

But I also agree about the diet.

None of the weights is likely to help your cycling much but, equally, I don't want to look like the typical Pro Tour cyclist either

Mikey23

Well past middle age here and dont have gravity problems but as i am becoming a more energetic cyclist im realising that upper body strength would help greatly and particularly arms and shoulders. I would think its not just about strong legs but a whole body activity. No solutions, just my thoughts...

wandsworth

Also, to fight sag, think about core strength training. This is a good book about it: Tom Danielson's Core Advantage.

phreak

You say you don't have enough time to spend on the bike. How much time can you devote to this?

keef66

I'd say try swimming a couple of times a week. Good for upper body and core, and for burning calories if you give it some welly. Just don't add any running to your routine or else you could be mistaken for a triathlete...

lawrences

Rowing is 70% legs so wouldn't really beef you up at the shoulders and arms. Also comes with the addition of needing to learn correct technique to avoid a back injury as Kingstonian mentioned.

Circuit training and core strength exercises are free and effective. Maybe get a set of dumbbells to use in addition.

bartman100

thanks for all the good advice folks.

bartman100

oh yeah, what size kettlebell?

meanredspider

bartman100 wrote:

oh yeah, what size kettlebell?

I was recommended 12kg to start. Seems about right but I might need to go larger later.

ctc

meanredspider wrote:

bartman100 wrote:

oh yeah, what size kettlebell?

I was recommended 12kg to start. Seems about right but I might need to go larger later.

Yep 12kg is a good start

whoof

Whatever you choose if you don't enjoy doing it you want stick to it. Try getting an allotment and attacking it with a shovel.

bernithebiker

whoof wrote:

Whatever you choose if you don't enjoy doing it you want stick to it. Try getting an allotment and attacking it with a shovel.

Indeed, or my personal favourite, 3 hours with a Stihl MS 660, 100cc chainsaw!

Smithster

bernithebiker wrote:

whoof wrote:

Whatever you choose if you don't enjoy doing it you want stick to it. Try getting an allotment and attacking it with a shovel.

Indeed, or my personal favourite, 3 hours with a Stihl MS 660, 100cc chainsaw!

And mine is a week of trimming Beech hedges with my Stihl HS 81T Hedge cutter. Problem is, it leaves me physically exhausted to cycle!

bernithebiker

Smithster wrote:

bernithebiker wrote:

whoof wrote:

Whatever you choose if you don't enjoy doing it you want stick to it. Try getting an allotment and attacking it with a shovel.

Indeed, or my personal favourite, 3 hours with a Stihl MS 660, 100cc chainsaw!

And mine is a week of trimming Beech hedges with my Stihl HS 81T Hedge cutter. Problem is, it leaves me physically exhausted to cycle!

Yep, I do that too, but I use the 81R; it has bigger spaced teeth and more torque, but I'd like a T for scuplting my box hedges!

robbo2011

A narcissist?

Camcycle1974

bartman100 wrote:

As someone approaching middle age and not spending enough time on the bike, I'm starting to slide southwards into the classic flabby arms, moobs and beer gut physique. Aside from more cycling, and lifestyle & back and knee injuries makes this hard at present, what is the best exercise I can do to try and arrest the slide? I have considered:-

- rowing machine - expensive and more focussed on cardio-vascular perhaps and thus too similar to cycling??
- weights bench and weights - cheaper but the thought of it bores me
- press ups, crunches, squats and yoga - cheapest but least hardest to maintain from a motivation pov??

Thoughts?

You don't need any fancy equipment. A pull up bar is all that is required. Alternate sets of chins (with hands facing you) and push ups are all you need for a toned torso. To see the muscles you toned have you will have to lose the lard though! Nothing worse than a fat, lardy, muscly bloke who thinks he's ripped! Diet is where you need to focus your attention.

bernithebiker

I think the gym/steroid crew look ridiculous, you know the ones, super beefed up, but one suspects they could not run 100m or ride 10km without turning bright red.

Is being able to bench press 200kg or whatever really useful in life?! Still, the girls seem to like it (the dumb ones) so maybe they're on to something.....

Mikey23

Im always getting sand kicked in my face on the beach by seven stone weaklings...

Camcycle1974

madasahattersley wrote:

^^^^^ I'm afraid an awful lot of the population won't even be able to do a single chin up much less a pull up and certainly not be good at them to build any appreciable muscle. Press ups to will only get you so far as well. And there's the fact that motivating yourself to use your own chin up bar is 100000 times harder than going somewhere with the explicit intention of working out using purpose built equipment for a good amount of time.

I tried to gain strength and size by using chin ups and press ups and found it impossible to get a decent workout with them alone. Now go to the gym 3 or 4 times a week and love it! And end up aching nicely for the next day too.

Luke, I appreciate that people are different but I have been able to build appreciable amounts of muscle using chins and press-ups. Progressive resistance is key. When I was doing a lot of chins I was doing 6 strict reps with an additional 20kg on a weight belt. With the press-ups adding difficulty is important by doing them with feet on a bench/step or similar.
Granted, they are not as effective at building muscle as bench press but then most cyclists are not trying to build lots of non-functional muscle. I for one am in the process of losing some of the muscle I built up over the winter. I don't like the anorexic cyclist look however so striking a balance is important for me. Never going to be a skinny bloke so might as well work with what Iv'e got. Chins and push-ups (with bodyweight) help to maintain what muscle mass I already have. by adding weight gains can be made if desired.

As for motivation it's similar to doing cycling training really. If you want to do it you will find a way.

Ps, did you enjoy the St Ives club run on Sunday? A mate of mine was riding up at the front with you, he certainly enjoyed it in a masochistic kind of way!

whoof

bernithebiker wrote:

I think the gym/steroid crew look ridiculous,

http://humancyclist.wordpress.com/2014/ ... -not-sexy/

dennisn

bernithebiker wrote:

Is being able to bench press 200kg or whatever really useful in life?

It is if you're a bodybuilder, power lifter, Olympic weightlifter, or any of a whole bunch of strength sports. For that matter it could also be very useful if you do heavy manual labor for a living, and there are a FEW :roll: people, in this world, who do that.

The better question might be "is being able to ride a bike really useful in life". Sure it's good cheap(in most cases) transportation, it's fun, and it's good for you. Other than that I don't see it being "useful in life" as you say. And definitely NOT more "useful in life" than strength training. There is always a calling for someone who is "strong" as opposed there being much need for a "wimpy" biker . You'll never hear someone yelling "Hey, we need a cyclist to help us lift and move this refrigerator".