Health & Fitness Blog

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!

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.

Like I mentioned above, the boot camp program I use now relies mostly on pull-ups to develop the back. There are some pull-up exercises that were familiar to me, but there were many that were very unique. As much as I hated doing them, I knew that if I followed the program like it’s set up that I would get results, so of course I made sure I completed all the exercises. The first week was tough, and I could only do about 4 to 5 pull-ups for each set, but as each week passed by, I noticed my rep count increased! When I reached day 90, I was able to do 15-20 pull-ups for each exercise!

Then there are the push-ups. Oh boy, that first workout, Chest … Back, nearly put an end to me! It involves doing nothing but non-stop push-ups and pull-ups for about 45 minutes. After I got through the half-way mark, I seriously thought I was going to pass out. My arms felt like jello from doing all those push-ups, and I could only do 2-3 push-ups for each remaining exercise. After a few weeks of doing that workout, I was already seeing changes in my chest that I have never noticed before! At the end of my 90 days, my chest was more developed than it has ever been.

If you have hit a plateau in your workouts and want to get beyond it, push-ups and pull-ups are the exercises that will take you to the next level. I was a skeptic at first until I tried going to a boot camp type workout, but now I preach by the program and the workouts. Traditional push-ups and pull-ups have made a comeback!

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