I am ashamed to say that I am too weak and cannot lift weights, so I don't really want to keep doing it due to the embarrassment.I was wondering if I can strengthen my upper body BEFORE I re-start doing weights exercises? Maybe on the rowing machine?
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Improve upper body strength without using weights?
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Don't be an idiot. No one in the gym is laughing at you, or even cares how little you can lift. Just suck it up, and lift what little you can. You'll see results, and so will others.
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But if I train on the rowing machine a lot, to imrpove my upper body and back muscles, maybe I will be capable of lifting more when I go back to the weight machines?
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Calisthentics ususally bring up upper body strength through the roof but it would be wise to COMBINE them with the gym. I think people at the gym could give less of a shit about how much you lift. Whenever I go to a machine and I see a low weight on it the LAST thing I think is "who is the guy that lifted this?".
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I do know of two excellent calisthenic programs, they are bodyweight exercises that helped me out a lot. I did calisthenics religiously for months, and I started out benching 80 when I first started working out. Not a lot, but a lot for someone like me who could once barely lift the barbel. The name of the book is COMBAT CONDITIONING by Matt Furey. The guy is very anti-weights, and only uses bodyweights himself, but he's not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. His program's good; I listned to him and did only bodyweights from his book for about 4 months before I finally decided to combine this program with a weight program. The other book by him that's really good is COMBAT ABS, very good ab exercises. A third book is one I haven't tried personally, but a friend of mine who's a lacrosse player says it's really good, it's also bodyweight exercises, called NEVER GYMLESS.as Helmsman said, nobody's born with fully developed muscles. I know exactly how you feel; I was terrified of using the weight room at my school because all the gigantic football players worked out in there and I couldn't lift shit. What I've found is, nobody gives two shits how strong you are or how much you can bench. What I've found is that a lot of people were sympathetic to my cause and gave me some workourt advice. Take it from someone who used to be very self-conscious. It's not worth worrying what other people think of you. The way you look, the way you talk, how much you can lift in the weight room, most people mind their own business, don't give a flying fuck, or both.
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Same thing happen to me with the sympethetic kids. The gym I was at had the football quarterback working there. We actually had some discussions he gave me tips on what I should do inbetween steps and gave me more stretches.
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Thats assanine.If your too skinny, wear sweats orbaggy clothes that hide your size but still make it comfortable and safe to work out. Not a person in that gym started off looking like they do now.Pay special attention to Helms post, theres a hell of a lot of truth in it.