Rec and Sports

Get Ripped with Basic Training

Most people these days rely solely on bench press and machines to build their chest and back, and have completely forgotten about two of the most effective chest and back exercises out there, and that’s push-ups and pull-ups! There is a reason why the military uses these traditional exercises, and that’s because they work!

I have never been a fan of pull-ups, and quite frankly hated doing them in the gym. I would do a set of 4 or 5 wide grip pull-ups and then quit for the rest of the workout. It just wasn’t enjoyable for me! I relied on lat-pull downs to develop my back, but really that wasn’t enough to get good results. I would occasionally do some lawnmowers, but never followed proper form, so it was pretty much pointless as well. I never had the proper instruction either, which doesn’t help. Then I began the program, and I wanted to make sure I strictly followed it because I saw how it worked for others.

I was one of those guys who would maybe do 1 set of pull-ups every two months. So what did I do to develop my back? Well, I would do lawn mowers, but never really got anything out of them because I wasn’t trained properly on how to use correct form. I would also use the lat-pull-down machine, but that only got me so far. Really, I have never had definition in my back until I changed my approach to back development.

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.

Please join me in getting into the best shape of your life. I’m a big believer in a traditional pull up and push up program. Also I’m looking to try out a new super high boot camp program and will report on that once I get through it.

Want to find out where you can get p90x?, then visit Josh Spencer’s site, iwanttogetripped.com and read his P90X review to see if this workout routine will work for you.