Hi folks, I'm 16 and around 6'2 and don't weigh a heck of allot, your average tall guy I guess. I'm not dead set on becoming a muscle man, but just a quick question, are push ups and sit ups adequate enough to keep decently fit and strongish?Also a tip for the fellas, pullin' on your Johnny (or whatever you call him) will give you strong forearms! So I think anyways.
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Don't want to be a muscle man!
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It takes years of hard work, correct diet, and big weights to become a muscle man. So I'd say that's the least of your worries.
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You need to do more than just sit ups and push ups to keep your muscles in good shape. You've got your abs, triceps, chest, and the anterior (front) part of your shoulders covered with those exercises. What about the posterior part of your shoulders, biceps, all those different back muscles like traps and lats, hips, glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, calves. You won't be a big muscle man by doing body weight exercises, but try to work all your muscles. Skipping is excellent for good footwork agility, cardio, and coordination. Do some sort of sport that challenges your legs or do weighted or jump squats. Also, chin ups are great bodyweight exercises. You can do a variety of shoulder and leg exercises with very light weights for your legs and arms by laying on the ground and doing arm/leg raises from different angles. Do high reps on these and you'll start to feel it, plus it'll help develop good muscle control so long as you make sure to do it at a controlled rate.It's good that you want to be decently fit, but sit ups and push ups just don't quite do it on their own. Try working more muscle groups and get some sort of activity in there that's good cardio. Heavy lifts like squats are awesome for getting your heart really pumping, but that doesn't seem to be your interest. The best cardio are activities like running, swimming, skipping, biking, or anything where there's long lasting exertion and your heart keeps pumping. Cardio is perhaps the most important aspect of long term health because it's shown to reduce bad cholesterol in the blood, decrease blood pressure, burn excessive calories that cause weight gain (which is why many bodybuilders need to limit their cardio), and is also a great form of stress relief since long activities release endorphine hormones that cause relaxation.