caapn_jazz

hey, i'm curious if anyone here trains without equipment? i've been interested in building muscle mass sans weights for a while, as it seems very economic and a lot more practical. i like to do isometric and isotonic exercises utilizing my body as the resistance. a simple example being, having your hands outstretched and pushing on one another as hard as possible, or sitting and pushing your knees together while providing resistance with them. https://www.angelfire.com/ny5/shenandoah/OBB/OBB.html, this site has a very comprehensive program that i've found extremely useful and i hope you guys can get some ideas from it too.

also, if anyone has information concerning vrt or dvr exercising i would be very grateful because i can't seem to find much information on the subject and can't really grasp that sort of training.

one last question, what are the primary muscles used in cycling and what exercises could i do to develop them most effectively?

thank you.

DaveSPete

I decided not to spend the money for gym membership. I also did not want a giant exercise machine at the house. So I do old fashioned pushups, situps, etc.

I also use a machine called a Bullworker. This is an isometric device. It sounds crazy, but it works. Do a search for Bullworker on eBay, and you can see what it looks like. It's basically a compressible tube, approximately one yard long. It has handles on each end for pressing, and two cables along the sides for pulling. Inside is a stiff coil spring. All sorts of different muscle groups can be strengthened with the various exercises. There are even leg exercises. I have a friend who is very faithful with his Bullworker workouts, and you'd swear he's spending hours a week in the gym.

There are four great things about the Bullworker:
1. It works.
2. It is extremely compact. I even take mine on trips.
3. It takes very little time (ten to fifteen minutes a day).
4. They're cheap.

I don't think they make them anymore. So check out eBay. I got mine at Play It Again Sports, a used sports store. I also see them once in awhile at places like Goodwill. Try to get the wall chart that shows the exercises.

Hope this helps,
Dave

derath

I have a friend who trained to become a Navy seal by running, and doing pushups/situps during commercials while watching TV.

Of course he blew out his knee in the first week of seal training and got kicked out...

-D

LilSprocket

Gyms have many advantages and are cool for lotsa folks but I don’t like gyms. Assuming you cycle and/or do other forms of cardio, I doubt you’d want to gain any serious muscle size, but more strength.

I’m a big fan of using dumbbells of varying weight. Pilates & ballet did amazing things for
my legs, butt, core & shoulders, even only a once a week adult class and once a week at home.

Walking lunges are great for the legs, forward and backward. Crunches, pushups and pullups help with upperbody strength. Quality is far more important than quantity, proper form is essential as well as being consistent, nothing improves overnight.
Have patience, be consistent.

The muscles used in cycling are mostly the quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves but it really depends on the sort of cycling you do... Off road riding incorporates more core and upperbody groups than road riding.

Good luck