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beginner upper-body routines posted: Tue 2013-02-26 13:38:00 tags: fitness
You know what's an even better protein-per-calorie value than black beans? According to the packaging, frozen spinach and broccoli: each 4g / 30 kcal per 1-cup serving = .1333 index value. Best vegetable protein I've charted so far, in fact equal to a Ball Park smoked white meat turkey wiener.
"mountain climber"
push-ups
wrist curls (15#)
ab plank (:45)
gripmaster
triceps dips
crunches
hammer curls (5# / 5:00)

The "mountain climber" (hereafter MC) and "plank" come from the beginner section of Men'sHealth article on ab exercises.

The conventional progression for push-ups is "wall" push-ups (beginner), "bench" (intermediate), and "floor" (standard). (Advanced push-ups invert the bench position to approach handstand position, but that's a long way down the pike for me.) Wrist pain is what holds me back from standard push-ups, but I'm not totally soft, so the intermediate position is a fair launch point.

The MC uses the intermediate push-up position, so it's a convenient flow to follow the MC with push-ups. When I progress to standard push-ups I might shuffle push-ups to the top of the routine.

Beginner triceps dips are done from a floor position, but I think I can get away with the intermediate bench position. Grip resistance isolates the hands and forearms. The plank is an isometric tension exercise and the position gives the whole upper body a little recovery time. Then back to the forearm and biceps with weighted wrist curls and timed hammer curling.