Upper Body Workout only?

Hello, i need a good upper body workout now that my knee is a bit dodgy had i have been feeling pain so i need to rest it...


I dont want to make this an excuse for not working out.

So any ideas on what i can do for a predominantly upper body workout? Because usually my workouts consists of alot of legs. But with the knee problem nearly everything has been cut out except for the two exercises i do for upper body which are weighted pullups and weighted pushups..

What i have at home

A pair of 20 kg dumbells

A bag that at rest weighs about 9 kg (has books inside), and i add weight plates to it to make it heavier to do pushups, and i can do the same for pullups with this.

A pullup bar

That is it... So any ideas? I cant do any legs. But i need a good workout that wont affect my knee to make it any worse.

But i dont want to workout my upper body so much that i end up overtraining my upper body and getting injured in the shoulders.

Oh and i hate doing arm isolation than anything, sorry but don't recommend them to me. Its probably because of the number of people i see at school who are curl + tricep warriors but have horrible chest, upper back and legs.

thank you

 

gymnastic holds.

http://gymnasticbodies.com/

 

The muscle group isolation is for body builder. MA guys like to train functional and achieve "body unification" instead. You may not build as big muscle as a body builder does, but your muscle will be more useful for your MA function.

IMO, KB training is much better than bench pressing.

 

+1 for this. I get a far better 'burn' doing the basic static holds and a mix of pull ups and dips than i ever have with any other training style i've tried. Also is excellent for shoulder strength and stability as well as a core killer.

 

If you're going to hit your upper body for any length of time while your waiting out a knee recovery why not work on pre-habbing your rotator cuffs. This is a big area for injury for many sports and lots of martial artists. If your doing your chins and you're not working your rotator cuffs you're asking for injuries.

Arms out at side - shoulder level - like a scare crow. Pronate and supinate your hands so rotate your palms up and down through a complete range of motion... the rotator muscles are small and are not prime movers so you'll want low if any weight to start with and hi reps. 20 pronations and supinations at just arm weight for 3 sets. You'd be surprised how much ache that can bring.

Cubans are also good... and can be started with just arm weight. Google them. Slowly add some light weights... again... hi reps low weight..

External rotations with a band or lying on your side and using a light DB... same protocol - light weight high reps...


I'd also work on scapular control... most people are terrible at this. Work on your cat/camel postures - from one to the other... if you do any stand up striking having good scap control is a must.

Let me know how it goes or if you can't manage to find any relevant drills on YouTube... should be tons out there for the rotator cuffs. If you don't prehab them you will most likely end up rehabbing them.

 

Awesome, gymnastic bodies it is then! I used to do them before but i stopped.

So im thinking...

Pushups, weighted pushups, pullups/chinups, then ill do some lever holds like front lever holds, back lever holds, inverted front lever rows etc...

I could also try those renegade rows that fish does. I know they devastate the core!
What else, russian twists maybe.



And @ youknowwho... yeah kettle bell workouts are probably good. When my knee is better im going to do kettlebell workouts but with tyres instead They will help with the grip!

Would you say kettle bell workouts are more functional?

To be honest i stopped liking isolation a long time ago, before i was even doing MA's. The only isolation i do now is because it is the only isolation i have that is ok. they are GHR's and SLDL's.

 

Ok i just got your reply slip. thanks for that input!

Yeah i done those rotator cuff things before. My doctor recommended them when i injured my shoulder before.

Yeah you use baby weights and then you do them slow right, very high rep like around 15-20 reps as they are small muscles.

I used to do them 3 - 4 times a week 3 sets or so, during and after my injury. I should start doing them again.

And yeah i do those cat camel drills (frodo told me about them, as well as bird dogs). That reminds me, i am going to do those mobility drills on frodos diary too.

I am no longer doing striking but i am doing judo if that makes any different in terms of scapula.

yeah i also heard of cuban press. Chad waterbury did an article.

http://chadwaterbury.com/balance-your-shoulder-strength-and-build-power/

 

Yeah bird-dogs are a great move. Nice insurance policy for the lower back and when done correctly fire the glute and the lumbar in proper order. Important that. Yeah Chad Waterbury's stuff is pretty good!

And if you're doing Judo all the drills I pointed out will be a good help. Pretty much no matter what sport/MA you want good shoulders - eg. conditioned shoulders that can endure explosive movement, wear and tear and maintain the ability to stabilize the shoulder capsule.

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ffpcRxWgsg"]Steve Cotter Tea Cup Shoulder Mobility Exercise 1: Part 2/2 - YouTube[/ame]

this is a pretty good movement you might wanna incorporate in your warm-ups as well.

 

That dude in the video does it so well and easy!!! i cant do it like him, so fluently lol.

i just remembered glute bridges. Thats another one.

EDIT:

BTW i got a foam roller today... well i kinda just found a big PVC pipe outside in my garden, gave it a thorough clean (the amount mud, dirt, insects inside this pipe is unbelieveable!). Now ready to use.

 

When you swing your KB, you are using your whole body and not just your arm.

Human body is like 3 separate springs. Without MA training, those 3 separate springs will be compressed and released independly. Body builders won't care about this. With MA training, those 3 separate springs can be compressed at the same time and released at the same time. IMO, muscle group isolation is against the MA body unification principle. You will never punch with your arm and not to put your body behind it.

 

Was shown this movement years ago by a dancer--she said that she used to do it with candles in her hands! I never formally train these, but through the years, I will just randomly do a couple of them when spacing out.

As to the OP, I also vote for gymnastic bodies and will just mention the 20 pullups/100 pushups programs that can be found online, too. Oh and Ross Enamait has enough suggestions to make you never want to do upper body work again!

 

wow that ross enamait is really cool! thanks for that!

 

is there anything like the internal rotation for shoulders foe knees? there are about 3 excersizes for shoulder prehab but what about knees prehab and rehab?

also for shoulders how often should I prehab? during rehab I was doing it 5 to 6 times per week

thanks

 

Anything is better than just bench pressing...

A whole system is better than just doing one movement, gee who would have thought.

Fact is though dave Tate is strong as hell, pavell whatshisface is scrawny and weak, his party tricks might look impressive but I'd rather shift some acctual weight.

If you look at any decent strongman or powerlifter I can promise they'll do curls of some description. They are the strongest dudes in the world and don't seem to have an issue. Also elbow and shoulder injury is rife along fighters, a well developed bicep helps to protect and stabilise the shoulder and elbow (particularly the long head)

To the OP just don't complicate it, take any program and just don't do the lower body work. To be honest though I'd be suprised if your knee stopped you doing ANY lower body work. I'm leaving it there as I don't like to comment too much on strangers injurys for obvious reasons

Honestly though, do your self a favour and forget you ever heard the word 'functional' strength is strength, and a bigger muscle has more potential for strength. Kettle bells are fun, and you can get a decent conditioning workout from them, but they ain't the be all and end all. You don't get strong with light weights, ergo a 20kg bell ain't going to make you a beast, it is just one tool in a whole box.

This is a bit of a rant I admit, I just find it frustrating.

 

I know I will catch some flack for the above.

Fact is if you look at some of the members here:

Simon used to BB, I've seem footage of the bloke, he's still a big guy, mobile as hell and I wouldn't fancy a clip in the lug of him

Gary: sticks to basic barbell stuff first then does his conditioning etc, as anyone at the latest DART seminar what I feels like to get in his way!

Frodo: what do I need to say? She's hard as nails despite some pretty tough injuries.

Hara: can Deadlift more than most blokes on here, has competed and makes continual progress every week, honestly her log should be mandatory reading.

COSMIC: is a scary looking dude, yet manages to remain 'functional' despite the majority of his training being centred around barbell moves.

Kuma: got strong, actually scrap that, got REALLY strong with a barbell THEN decided to shift his focus to more conditioning work when he had some appreciable muscle and strength levels.

All of the top of my head, the main thing that stands out about these posters is that they all use basic barbell moves, don't worry about 'functional' or any other gimics and why I choose to attempt to follow their footsteps is they're making progress every single year, from doing squat, dead, bench, and press THEN playing about with the other stuff.

The dudes who focus their training entirely around jars of sand and bizarre S+M looking set ups with trees and chains or whatever it they do, look the same year in year out and I've yet to see an astonishing leap in their performance.

I'm not saying that stuff doesn't have merit, just don't eat your pudding when you haven't started your main course yet, you know what I mean?


EDIT: I'm aware if gone off on a huge tangent, if the mods want to move that elsewhere or whatever that's fine by me, I've had a lot of coffee today and that rant has been building.