Push Ups ... Pull Ups Still Rule

By Josh Spencer

Back when I was playing college baseball and going to the gym every day, I thought that I would be able to build my chest and back a lot more than I actually did. I figured that by going to the gym every day, I would at least see some improvement each week in these muscle groups, but it seemed that I fell into a plateau and could never really get beyond it. That was until I discovered a basic boot camp style program that incorporates many push-ups and pull-ups to develop the chest and back. These traditional exercises are what helped me get a ton of definition in my chest and back, something I have never experienced!

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!

Pull-ups and I have never really gotten along. I mean, I really hated doing them when I went to the gym, which is probably why I never did them anyways. If I would do them, I would do a set of 6 or 7 wide grip pull-ups and then quit because I hated doing them. So you might be asking, "So what did you do to develop the back?" Well, not much to be honest. Like I mentioned above, I would occasionally use the lateral pull-down machine, and would also do some lawn mowers, but they weren't effective because I didn't know how to use proper form.

Proper form is just as important for push-ups as it is pull-ups. I never believed that traditional push-ups would build my chest to where I wanted it to be. I guess you can say that I was a skeptic! That was until I did complete workouts that focused just on push-ups! You want soreness? Try doing 45 minutes of nothing but different push-up exercises! I could barely make it through the second half of the workout. As hard as it is to swallow my pride, I admit that I could only do 2-3 push-ups during the second half. Yeah, it's embarrassing, but oh well! Long story short, doing just these traditional push-ups built my chest more than ever before. I even have veins popping out of my chest now!

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.

So for all of you that believe that you can only develop the chest and back muscles from going to the gym and lifting heavy weights, I have to disagree! I am living proof that push-ups and pull-ups work! - 17269

About the Author:

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