If you’re someone that goes to the gym every day, you’re going to know exactly what I’m talking about. How many people do you see doing push-ups in the gym? Well, usually none. Guys are always doing bench-press or using some sort of machine to build the chest. It’s almost the same with pull-ups, but not as extreme. You will occasionally see a few guys busting out some wide grip pull-ups, but again, it’s pretty rare. So what the heck has happened to these traditional exercises to develop the chest and back? People believe they aren’t as effective, but I’m here to say otherwise!
I hate to admit it, but I was one of those gym junkies who used only bench press to develop my chest and the lateral pull-down machine for my back. Of course I thought this was enough, until about a year into going to the gym ever day, and then I asked myself, “Why does it seem that I haven’t seen any more definition in either my chest or back in about 8 months?” It was official, I had hit a plateau, and I’m sure many of you reading this have experienced the same thing. However, I didn’t do anything about it until I reached a point after college when I wasn’t happy with the way I looked. I really fell out of shape, and it wasn’t until I discovered a basic workout program that relies mostly on push-ups and pull-ups to develop the chest and back muscle groups, and I was a skeptic until I tried it out myself. After 90 days, my chest and back had more definition than ever before!
Like I mentioned above, pull-ups are the main exercises to develop the back. During the first week of doing all the unique pull-ups, I was able to do only 4-5 for each set, but noticed that my muscles were the most sore they have ever been in that area. As each week passed by, I noticed that I was able to do more and more pull-ups until I got to the point where I was busting out 15-20 pull-ups for each set! Remember, the most I could ever do was 8, and I just blew that number out of the water after just a month! I learned, though, that it’s very important to focus on proper form. This includes pulling up as far as possible and then lowering until you can’t lower anymore!
Like I mentioned above, the boot camp program I use now relies mostly on pull-ups to develop the back. There are some pull-up exercises that were familiar to me, but there were many that were very unique. As much as I hated doing them, I knew that if I followed the program like it’s set up that I would get results, so of course I made sure I completed all the exercises. The first week was tough, and I could only do about 4 to 5 pull-ups for each set, but as each week passed by, I noticed my rep count increased! When I reached day 90, I was able to do 15-20 pull-ups for each exercise!
So for all you skeptics that believe that you can only develop your chest and back with heavy lifting, I beg to differ! From personal experience, pull-ups and push-ups have gotten me better results than going to the gym.
If you have hit a plateau in your workouts and want to get beyond it, push-ups and pull-ups are the exercises that will take you to the next level. I was a skeptic at first until I tried going to a boot camp type workout, but now I preach by the program and the workouts. Traditional push-ups and pull-ups have made a comeback!
If you want to find out if the Beachbody P90 work-out exercise program works, then stop by Josh Spencer’s site, www.iwanttogetripped.com where you can see Josh’s p90x transformation and review and can judge for yourself what it can do for you.
