Body Building for Skinny Guys -The Push Up
Article by Patrick
Body Building for Skinny Guys -The Push Up – Health
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Keep Your Wandering Eyes Off My, CHEST!
My perennial favourite. The chest muscles or if youre a human body geek, the pectoral muscles. Did you know? 90% of the time the first part of the body that a person looks at when they see another person is the chest? Forget the phrase your eyes are the windows to your soul. Your chest, is the first and most direct channel into a persons head.
More often than not, the simplest exercises that require the least amount of money is the most effective one. This exercise is one of the most overlooked exercises in body building.
The Push-Up
The main muscle group targeted in this exercise is the chest. Although you would feel quite a lot of strain on your triceps when starting off, it also serves to train other smaller muscle groups that can improve your overall trunk region.
Posture
The most important thing to keep in mind is correct posture. Take a look at the picture above, notice that the persons back remains straight when he lowers himself towards the floor. That is the correct posture to undertake when doing push ups.
Ensure that your trunk (chest and stomach) is lined up with your legs when in the locked arm position. When lowering yourself to the floor, again, it is of utmost importance that you maintain the straight, horizontal position without arching your back in either in the upwards or downwards direction.
When starting out, the strain on your arms and chest might be painful and you would be tempted to arch your back to relieve some of the ache on your arms and chest. Do not do that.
It is essential that you maintain the horizontal position throughout the exercise. If you do not have a training partner, do the exercise against a mirror and keep a lookout for your posture.
Method
Although it may seem simple, there are many mistakes that will severely affect the effectiveness of this exercise if not carried out properly.
Firstly, the position of your arms and hand should be about shoulder width apart. There are variations of the push-up that uses different widths such as the diamond push up, but lets stick to the basic form of the push up for now.
Secondly, lower yourself until your chest is close to the floor, or nearly touching the floor. A good gauge would be to the point where your elbows are bent at a 90 degree position with your body still straight. This position effectively targets the chest muscles without having to place too much strain on your back and arm muscles.
Thirdly, remember this rule. Exhale when pushing, inhale when releasing. This is a fundamental principle when doing any form of exercise. Applying this to the exercise, exhale when pushing yourself back up to the original/resting position and inhale when lowering yourself down to the floor.
It may seem counter intuitive when starting off and many individuals new to working out can often be seen holding their breath when carrying out any exercise, resulting in them tiring out very quickly and turning blue after a few sets. Proper breathing technique is key to maintaining strength and stamina as your muscles need oxygen to remove lactic acid build up.
Fourthly, aim to do the pushing (from the floor up) in as fast a time possible and release the load slowly (lowering yourself). As a guide line, the time taken to lower yourself must at least be twice that of the time taken to push yourself up.
Specially for The Skinny Guy (Like Me)
If you are actually doing the push up correctly, it might actually result in muscle fatigue (meaning you have absolutely zero strength) within 20 to 25 repetitions in the first set. Dont be alarmed, 20 to 25 reps when you are just starting off is alright.
Everybody has to start off some where. If youve read my muscle guide for skinny guys, skinny guys need additional sets and stress on the muscle in order to trigger the response by the body to build more muscle.
This is where the hard part kicks in. As a skinny guy, you absolutely HAVE to do another set, even if it means complete muscle fatigue and you cant even hold a pencil properly after the exercise. The main purpose is to place additional stress to your muscles.
If youve reached muscle fatigue in the first set, commencing the second set, you would not be able to replicate the same results.
For example
1st set: 25 repetitions till fatigue 2nd set: Ideally, 25 repetitions, but muscle fatigue kicks in around 19 to 20 repetitions 3rd set: Number of repetitions will continue to decrease
If you are not experiencing muscle fatigue, either you are not doing the exercise correctly or you have not pushed till muscle fatigue.
There is no secret to making body building for skinny guys easier because unfortunately you are not naturally blessed with much muscle building genes. It becomes a mental game after the first set that youve accomplished and truthfully, you really do not know when your muscles will give way until youve pushed it far enough.
Just remember, the real stress that starts the muscle building process occurs only when you are struggling to complete a repetition. At this point, will power to keep on pushing is what matters the most. Keep your goal in mind, push yourself to your limits and you will see results coming through. Additionally, a partner would definitely be able to bring out the best in you.
Body building for skinny guys requires an extra amount of will power and mental strength. While we as skinny guys naturally lack the physical strength, we make up for in mental strength.
About the Author
Patrick has always been a skinny guy who was often kicked around by other guys bigger than him. He made up his decision to change his life by bulking up and now helps other skinny guys to start making changes to their lives. He is the author of http://www.fromskinnytobuff.com, where he shares his experience of bulking up and motivating others to do so as well.
Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines
whereby the original author’s information and copyright must be included.
Patrick
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Patrick has always been a skinny guy who was often kicked around by other guys bigger than him. He made up his decision to change his life by bulking up and now helps other skinny guys to start making changes to their lives. He is the author of http://www.fromskinnytobuff.com, where he shares his experience of bulking up and motivating others to do so as well.
Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines
whereby the original author’s information and copyright must be included.
