Functional Workouts and Upper Body Conditioning: Push Ups and Chin-ups

image

These days functional workouts are craved after compared to stereotypical workouts and there are a number of reasons behind this craving. Functional workouts are focused towards rehabilitating a person through exercises that mimic everyday activities. Hence, a host of fitness routines come into play depending upon the requirement of the person. For instance, if a person is required to lift heavy things, then he undergoes functional workouts that concentrate on heavy lifting. While a person who requires an endurance boost undergoes exercises that are geared towards re-building his endurance levels.

 The best workout routine – is there such a thing among functional workouts? Honestly, the answer is no, and the reason for this answer is that a different type of fitness routine is required for every single person. Put simply, functional workouts are geared towards training all the different muscles of the human body through different exercises. Moreover, they are also boosted with the added advantage of being weight reducers due to being the best body weight exercise routines available today.
However, the best thing about functional workouts is that they always begin with warm-up exercises like the one shown below.

However, if one were to concentrate on standard functional routines for upper body conditioning then the primary two exercises that feature in almost every type of functional workouts are push ups and chin-ups.

Pushups:

Basic pushup

Get into the standard pushup position with your head pointing towards the ground, straight back and straight arms. Arc backwards to bend your back upwards and then bend forward to so that your back is bent a little. Hold the position for one second and after that go down on the ground as shown. Note your chin and the whole of your chest should be touching the ground. For instructions, take a look at the video.

Decline pushup

Decline pushups when done correctly will give off an intense workout to the upper portion of the pectoralis muscle fiber. These push ups are done while keeping the feet propped against a wall or on the top of either a bench or a chair. Note that this particular pushup is a standard entry into different body weight exercise routines. Take a look at the video for instructions on correctly doing a decline pushup.

Incline pushup:

Incline pushups target three areas: chest, shoulders, and triceps. They are not that hard to do, but need to be done correctly in order to get the correct results. Check the video for instructions on doing an incline pushup.

Apart from these three types of push ups, the functional routines for upper body conditioning also involve doing chin-ups. Although, there are different types of chin-ups, however, one should always be aware about correctly doing them. It’s not just about hanging from a bar and pulling yourself up towards the bar.

 Basic chin-up
Hold on to the bar with both arms, while keeping and straight torso, and push your chest front to create a curvature on your lower back. Cross your legs so that you hang on to the bar. After you have got yourself into this starting position, try to pull yourself up to the bar such that your chin touches the bar. For a detailed piece of instruction, it is highly recommended that the video given below should be checked out.

There are various other types of fitness routines that involve push ups and chin-ups far more different than the ones given here. However, one should be aware about one’s requirements before going for a particular type of functional workout.

Source : fitsiteplus.com

Tany Clarck