Upper body and lower body (vague title)...

cleanbluesky

cleanbluesky

cleanbluesky

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2 Nov 2004
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Okay, I am about to start a training programme with the aim of fitness rather than perfecting my look (which I am reasonably pleased with anyway)...

My question is - if I work on upper body down the gym, and work on lower body with climbing and hill-walking will I give my lower body a sufficient work-out...
 
I would say to at least do a bit of training on the legs, etc in the gym. When I started hitting the gym quite hard I was developing my arms, shoulders, back and upper torso. All I was doing with my legs was footy training and playing. It led to problems with injuries in my legs due to them being unable to carry the new muscle bulk I had.
 
Gilly said:
I would say to at least do a bit of training on the legs, etc in the gym. When I started hitting the gym quite hard I was developing my arms, shoulders, back and upper torso. All I was doing with my legs was footy training and playing. It led to problems with injuries in my legs due to them being unable to carry the new muscle bulk I had.
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I'm with Gilly on this one. Personally I would still train your legs somewhat. I think the strength you would gain from squatting would help dramatically in your climbing endevours. Not to mention the main compounds like squats and deadlifts are fantastic for your whole body, not just your legs.

By all means do less work on them but I think it would be beneficial to at least get a few sets of squats in here and there.
 
Not entirely sure I agree with the other posters on this one. While it is fait to say that squatting is the king of all leg exercises when i think about your goals which I'm guessing is a general fitness increase as opposed to bulking up.

Now I in no way think that a couple of sets of heavy squats twice a week is going to hinder you in your aims I'm not sure it's vital.
If you consider the exercises that you will be doing while out hiking and climbing particularly if performed with a heavy rucksack you will be subjecting yourself to a fairly strenuous workout. I think it would probably come under the term of GPP which is I believe a conditioning regime which emphasises real life functional movements which condition the body superbly.
Other examples of GPP would be; sled-dragging, shovelling snow, splitting wood, loading and unloading weights etc etc. Now admittedly not all of those are practical for everyone, particularly in this country, but still, I hope you get the general idea. If you challenge yourself while your out there you'll be using muscles you never knew you had and i'd imagine you'd be pretty pleased with the gains in fitness you made.

Just my opinion of course.
 
I agree with you that it's not vital DanH84 particularly for cleanbluesky's aims which are purely fitness based. However I still maintain that squatting would be beneficial in the long run. Obviously there is no need for him to approach a leg workout in the way that a bodybuilder would since he is not training for mass. But as I am sure you are aware, squats really get the heart racing and are beneficial in so many more ways than just putting on leg mass.

To be honest it is up to you cleanbluesky. I personally feel the general strength gains you would recieve from squatting would be useful to you but it certainly isn't necessary.
 
zain said:
isnt squatting bad for you in the long run? its something I wouldnt do :/
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Whatever gives you that idea?

As long as you squat properly it is perfectly safe.
 
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There is plenty in the gym that will do you a lot of harm if done wrong, (you want to see some of the jokers in my gy. Very origonal technique! :D But squatting is a very good and not in any way harmful exersise when done properly.
 
Karl said:
What about pressure on your knees? :confused:
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Ahh the old knee pressure thing. Again, if the exercise is performed properly the pressure is nothing to worry about. Squatting will actually strengthen your knees over time as long as your form is correct and you up your weights slowly. Obviously there are those of us who do have weak knees or knee problems to begin with. In such cases there are variations on the squat which can be performed. :)
 
I would agree that - the more the merrier - but I am wary of over-training...

I intend to increase my excercise soon, based around upper body in the gym and a mixure of running and hill-walking with a weighted pack.

Any sports such as climbing and diving, soon kung-fu and possibly others as well will be performed on-top of these. Usually I will do one one thing a day, whereby if I am diving I wont run on that day, if I am climbing I wont do weights but I have tried recently combining excercise into days and it can potentially be done as long as I juggle the excercise that I do to make sure that I am not hitting the same muscles too much in a row...
 
cleanbluesky said:
I would agree that - the more the merrier - but I am wary of over-training...
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And rightfully so mate.

cleanbluesky said:
I intend to increase my excercise soon, based around upper body in the gym and a mixure of running and hill-walking with a weighted pack.

Any sports such as climbing and diving, soon kung-fu and possibly others as well will be performed on-top of these. Usually I will do one one thing a day, whereby if I am diving I wont run on that day, if I am climbing I wont do weights but I have tried recently combining excercise into days and it can potentially be done as long as I juggle the excercise that I do to make sure that I am not hitting the same muscles too much in a row...
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All you can really do mate is listen to your body. As long as you do that you can't go too far wrong. If working out your legs is too much for you then don't do it. If you feel you could do more and would like to increase your strength then throw in some squats when you can. Just do what you feel comfortable with.
 
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