It was mentioned in the home pull-up thread to start a thread about creative exercises people do at home without weights.
Well, outside of pushups with varying hand positions the only one I do is for the abs. Pushup position and walk across the floor while dragging your feet (definitely got that somewhere on this site).
Any creative suggestions welcome!
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459314… this is it perhaps?
Do a search for pistols, handstand push-ups, L-sit…
There’s something I came up with, or maybe someone did before me but I’ve never heard of it. I call them Deadweights. Basically you lie on the floor stomach down, completely relaxed. Bring your arms into the pushup position. Now push yourself with one arm while keeping the entire body relaxed and using the other arm for balance. The shoulder of the working arm will be above the other shoulder. The basic premise is to let your body become ‘dead weight’ and carry the entire exercise on the tricep without the help of other muscles. It works very well for tri mass.
Also a good way to do pushups is to get into the standard push-up position but lower and lift only one side while using the other arm for stability only. Then do the reverse. So it’s like one rep left side, one rep right side. When you finish the set divide the number by two; ie if you did 16 that means it was a set of 8 for each side.
Jp, you had to thread this huh?
I’ll put one of my exercises up, because i have so many it would take forever to list and explain them. So I’ll just start with this one and see who wants more.
My favorite exercise i came up with is a combination of a glute/ham raise and a push up. I call this exercise simply a “Hamstring Push Up”
I like this because its one of the rare bodyweight exercises that uses a ton or resistance and works both a push and a pull simultaneously. Also the upperbody and lowerbody simultaneously. Not to mention it works almost every muscle in the body except for the quads and some others.
O.K. Here it goes.
All you need to do this is a sofa or somthing to pin your feet to the floor. (I use a light sofa and it doesnt budge.)
1- Lye face down on the floor in a push up position.
2- Having your feet pinned under the sofa, adjust the knees slightly as that will be your pivot point.( you’ll be lifting your body up with your hamstrings and using the knees to pivot on so have carpet or a pad underneath them.
3- Start the movement by pulling with your hamstrings & only using your arms to push enough to go thru this movement.( up as far as you can go, going past where your hands are still toughing the floor takes tremendous hamstring strength)
4- Finish the movement by repping out the push ups but still using your hams.(its a complement to both parts push/pull, and keep each going)
** this can also be done from the 90 degree position lowered to arout 45 degrees and back to 90 degrees, but i wouldn’t reccomend it if your hams are weak or you’ll be doing a faceplant into the floor…so be sure to have your hands ready to hit the floor as you fail to hold yourself.
Most people can’t do 1 rep of this movement without the use of your hands from either position…bottom up, or top down
Try it out if you wanna find out how strong your hamstrings are. If you can do 1 rep, you have very strong hamstrings.
Ideally this movemnet builds the hamstrings like a glute/ham machine does but this requires no equipment and also works the most of the upperbody.
I got a million more.
Don’t ask though unless you are really desperate and need a specific exercise.
I’m starting to get Carpal Tunnel!
I noticed I forgot to add something.
Don’t forget to raise your hips slightly off of the ground in order to create a pivot point on your knees. Done correctly with proper form, this exercise will destroy your hamstrings like nothing else. Only use those push ups to keep forcing reps outta the hamstrings.