My legs are fit but upper body is neglected

[SpokeyDokey]

One common problem of avid cyclists (and walkers) is that the upper body is neglected.

I have a couple of friends who are serious walkers and they think they are very fit but, tbh, their upper bodies are pretty weedy looking. They both refuse to accept that in their later years (63 & 74) that they really need to introduce some resistance training into their lives.

All as already discussed upthread.

 

[briantrumpet]

Used to swim regularly too, to balance the lower body fitness, but that stopped when a local pool closed. But these days it's no more than 10 mins per day with some weights on the bed, partly out of vanity (there'd be nothing there if I didn't do something), but also as I'm aware that weights seem to have a few positive health benefits as you get older (including dementia, I think), and it's easier to get into a simple home routine before you lose muscle mass or your marbles.

 

[CXRAndy]

Press ups are an excellent compound exercise. You start out doing 1 or 2 then persist with it. Soon you can do 20- 100 reps. It develops pecs, lats, front, side delts and triceps. Its a pushing exercise.

To strengthen your biceps you need some pulling or bending of the arm, like pull ups. These are very tough to start with again a great exercise.

There are many variations of press ups to start you off, using a wall to lean against or half press ups with your knees instead of straight legs

 

[united4ever]

Cheers all, great advice. Have a steroid injection for the frozen shoulder next week so will follow that with exercise related to that. Was thinking beyond that what could be my go to when my shoulder thaws. Dumbells are a good idea, maybe combined with push ups then. Suppose I have to find the motivation from within and get into it. I like watching YouTube vids, documentaries, podcasts so that could be a nice way to combine doing that. I prefer something I can do at home for free ideally.

 

[Drago]

^^ wall press ups with the elbow tight in front and am excellent tricep and lat exercise.

Don't forget the tris. Far and away the biggest muscle group in the arm and an easy way to add mass. Folk that do the bis but have puny tris look a bit daft.

Having been there, whatever you do don't let them do a capsular release on the shoulder. The pain is off the scale and it'll never be right again. It's a ballache, but letting time heal it is the best way by far.

 

[cyberknight]

I have a folding total gym at home , 3-4 sessions a week means i look not to shabby for someone fast approaching 60 .In fact at my work medical i was told the reason i can still do my job and keep up with the young guns is because i look after myself.

 

[oxoman]

Take it easy till the all clear then you could try the following.
Gentle jog with small weighted bean bags or weighted wrist bands and gentle punching and lifting as you jog along. The jog side will aid other leg muscles that dont get used cycling. Small dumbells with loads of different exercises, start max 1kg then build up. Bare in mind 1kg is 2lb in old money. Once you've built up a bit try press ups, sit ups and the plank. Just take it easy and build up slowly. I injured my shoulder and elbow in a mtb off and it took me 2yrs to get full mobility back. I still get funny looks when I do arm rotation like a windmill and punches when doing local parkrun. I still have to do it occasionally on longer 10 mile plus runs. For info im 60 now so trying to build up upper body strength again for bikepacking and touring, I didn't realise how much hikeabike takes out of you when pushing uphill.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

The jog side will aid other leg muscles that dont get used cycling.

Leg muscles not used for cycling are interesting. I cycle both a tadpole recumbent and an upright-DF, most of the time the recumbent (except recently in the wetter weather and mucky roads). When I first started on the bent I was told it takes 1500 miles to get "bent legs" and despite having been doing a lot of upright cycling for many years before it did take me not far from that to get to a good recumbent "fitness" (in my terms).

But then I also restarted longer walks and found my legs already far fitter for walking than I'd expected (based on pre recumbent riding) so without physiology knowledge I wondered if muscles used more on the recumbent are also those used more for walking.

 

[PaulSB]

Cheers all, great advice. Have a steroid injection for the frozen shoulder next week so will follow that with exercise related to that. Was thinking beyond that what could be my go to when my shoulder thaws. Dumbells are a good idea, maybe combined with push ups then. Suppose I have to find the motivation from within and get into it. I like watching YouTube vids, documentaries, podcasts so that could be a nice way to combine doing that. I prefer something I can do at home for free ideally.

Absolutely you can do a great deal at home. I've been with my PT for 2½ years. Almost my first words to her were "I don't want to go to a gym." That has changed recently.

Firstly I suggest you get a good stretching routine. Mine takes 20 - 25 minutes. Concentrate on stretching the cycling muscles and those which cycling doesn't impact.

All I have is an exercise mat, old fashioned dumbells**, 10kg and 14kg kettlebells, stretch bands. This has served me well for 2+ years. Have a look around your house; step ups on the stairs, wall sits, dining room chair pushed against a wall for split squats etc.

** the sort which are a bar and come with a set of weights one adds or subtracts

I moved on to using a gym in August. I knew home workouts had started to limit me. This has opened up a whole new world which I really enjoy.

I avoid music, podcasts etc for the 45 - 60 minutes of workout. This is a time to clear the mind, concentrate only on you and your body. If you're anything like me be prepared to be amazed by where the mind takes you.

 

[wafter]

While I don't doubt that the gym can offer things thta other approaches can't, I think the you pay a lot for this and really have to be disciplined, have reached the limits of what you can do otherwise and know what you want from attending for this to work.

Personally I'm in a similar situation. Legs get a lot of use on the bike (albeit typically low-load, high-cadence so more endurance-focussed than strength) but my upper body has always been weak and aesthetically unappealing.

Being tight, undisciplined and disliking of gyms I like body weight stuff / calasthenics and it seems this can take you very far if you stick to it, although can sometimes be difficult to get into due to the lesser control over the weight on offer.

It seems that all the old-school approaches still hold water - aim to push and pull in all directions with the core exercises being press-ups, dips, chin-ups, pull-ups and sit-ups or hanging knee-raises. Some of these are harder than others and there are some intermediate steps to work up to them - using resistance bands for assistance, altering the angle of attack (such as inclined press-ups with the upper body raised to reduce load on the arms), or shorteing lever arms (press-ups on knees).

Some of the gaps left by typical body weight exercises can be filled with gym rings (such as horizontal pulling actions) and I really love the rings I bought a couple of years ago; which can also assist in transitioning to harder body weight stuff (ring rows are good training for pull-ups if you can't do a full one which was one of my reasons for taking this route), while they offer a lot of instability so are great for also strengthening stabilisting / complimentary muscles that would likely get an easy ride on machines were you're constrained to a single degree of freedom.

Finally dumbells offer a lot of value as they're cheap and versatile; while again also offering a degree of instability you don't get on machines and likely being all the better for promoting real-world, useable strength.

There's a ridiculous amount of really good content on Youtube, and plenty of stuff targeted at people like us rather than meatheads just looking to get ripped at all costs.

Good luck