Arms and Upper body

[adamangler]

Easiest way is just to add 15 mins of Calisthenics into your daliy routine.

Sit ups, press ups, dips, chin ups should be enough to keep "toned' along with cycling and a good diet.

A simple set off dumbbells needed take up much space and 30mins 3 times a week upper body would be a good way to stay "toned" .

Anything more and you are getting into bodybuilding which obviously becomes detrimental to cycling.

I use to bodybuild years ago, I don't do squatting or deadlift anymore as my lower back is a bit dodgy.

 

[Slow But Determined]

Like above I do sit ups, press ups on a daily basis.

For weights I use house bricks, which can easily be transformed into a kettle excersise by putting them in a strong bag for life.

 

[Drago]

The late, great Jan Pall Sigmarsson famously said, "There is no reason to be alive if you can't do deadlift." Wise words indeed.

 

[ColinJ]

The late, great Jan Pall Sigmarsson famously said, "There is no reason to be alive if you can't do deadlift." Wise words indeed.

Given that it was doing a deadlift that finished him off at the age of 32?

 

[Drago]

Congenital heart defect that he didnt realise he suffered with. But died doing what he loved.

 

[ColinJ]

Congenital heart defect that he didnt realise he suffered with. But died doing what he loved.

That's the way to go, but ideally at three times that age!

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Easiest way is just to add 15 mins of Calisthenics into your daliy routine.

Sit ups, press ups, dips, chin ups should be enough to keep "toned' along with cycling and a good diet..

A few years ago I got into a routine of doing press ups and chin-ups for upper body strength. I'd do a set of press-ups, then move my arms around whilst having a quick breather, then do a set of chin-ups - however many I could manage. Usually I get to 9 or so reps before failing on the first set. Then I'll have another quick breather and do another set of press-ups and repeat until I've done 3 sets of each exercise. I use a different hand grip position on each set of chin-ups for variety. Sometimes I'll also do some shoulder raises using some dumbells I picked up on special offer from the Decathlon shop in Surrey Docks some time ago. I just do exercises as and when I fancy it, and I don't ever do chin-ups more regularly than twice a week as they are demanding and need proper recovery time from. Overdoing those too frequently is asking for an injury.

 

[screenman]

I am shortly off for a 2 mile swim using a pull bouy, that will certainly take care of the upper body workout for today.

 

[Littgull]

I am shortly off for a 2 mile swim using a pull bouy, that will certainly take care of the upper body workout for today.

If my calculations are correct a 2 mile swim in a standard 25 metre pool involves 128 lengths! Hats off to you for doing that 3 times a week but I would find that mind numbingly boring! Even though I have a regular weekly swim of 40 lengths.

 

[ColinJ]

If my calculations are correct a 2 mile swim in a standard 25 metre pool involves 128 lengths! Hats off to you for doing that 3 times a week but I would find that mind numbingly boring! Even though I have a regular weekly swim of 40 lengths.

Damn tiring too!

When I lived in Coventry I used to swim in the 50 metre pool there*** three times a week after work - 32 lengths on Mondays and Wednesdays, 40 lengths on Fridays. That was enough for me! Mind you, I was doing a labouring job then which involved a LOT of upper body effort anyway - I would easily be shifting 10 to 20 TONS of materials about per day on a hand pallet truck and lifting them on and off my work bench.

*** The swimming baths were built back in the 1960s, when I was a boy. I watched the development with interest and became a regular swimmer. I read a couple of years ago that the pool was falling apart and too expensive to maintain so it was going to be pulled down and replaced by a smaller pool elsewhere.

 

[screenman]

If my calculations are correct a 2 mile swim in a standard 25 metre pool involves 128 lengths! Hats off to you for doing that 3 times a week but I would find that mind numbingly boring! Even though I have a regular weekly swim of 40 lengths.

You sure have to have your head in the right place, only takes an hour so not that bad.

 

[ColinJ]

You sure have to have your head in the right place, only takes an hour so not that bad.

I was a slow** swimmer (breaststroke) so my 2,000m swim took me about an hour and the 1,600 m swims took me about 45 minutes.

** A small girl was often swimming on the same evenings as me and she used to do close to 2 lengths for every 1 that I managed. It was quite humbling and shows how important swimming style is. I was pretty fit and obviously much stronger but I swam like a giant demented frog. Her style was superb.

 

[Drago]

Hydrodynamically an adult probably presents 6 or 8 times as much water resistance. Inverse square function of area, so you can console yourslf that you're really the man from Atlantis, but physics is against you

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Damn tiring too!

When I lived in Coventry I used to swim in the 50 metre pool there*** three times a week after work - 32 lengths on Mondays and Wednesdays, 40 lengths on Fridays. That was enough for me! Mind you, I was doing a labouring job then which involved a LOT of upper body effort anyway - I would easily be shifting 10 to 20 TONS of materials about per day on a hand pallet truck and lifting them on and off my work bench.

*** The swimming baths were built back in the 1960s, when I was a boy. I watched the development with interest and became a regular swimmer. I read a couple of years ago that the pool was falling apart and too expensive to maintain so it was going to be pulled down and replaced by a smaller pool elsewhere.

They're building the new water park in New Union street.

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventrys-new-water-park-really-14559096

 

[uphillstruggler]

Both of my daughters are very good club swimmers - county and regional level.

to swim next to them is an eye opener. compared to them, I am the proverbial lolling log.

but swimming does help with toning if done right.