I ride a recumbent bike to work my legs, but I need something to work my upper body more. What do you guys do?

I want to work my arms, especially, and also core and back. I do strength train 3x a week, so I work the muscles some, but I was thinking I would love to do something like a rowing machine, where you work those muscles over an extended period of time, aerobically. I would use a rowing machine but my knees absolutely could not handle it. I wish there was a rowing machine for just the upper body. Is there anything like that around? I can't find one. So I just do 3 sets of dumbbell rows as part of my weights.

Maybe there is a better forum to ask this, so I will look around the site and see, but since I hang out here I thought I would ask you guys first!

There's one at my gym, that doesn't use the lower body. But I have no idea about something for home use. That machine is big and would be impractical for a house.

I'll look around for an exercise you could do at home that would work those muscles, ask my trainer, without hurting those knees. I'm certainly no expert!

Lyn, try this and see if you find anything. I find this site to be a great resource:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.htm

Hey Lyn -

There are a bunch of good sites that have descriptions of workouts. You can also get really good advice from the Weight and Resistance Training forum here @ 3FC.

stumptuous.com

ExRx.net

MyFit

CrossFit

Trainwithmeonline

Thanks for the info posted here, not I just need to get myself motivated!

Pamela

Don't wait for motivation to happen.

The Nike saying is cliche but appropriate. Just DO IT

Lyn,

The reason aerobic exercises focus on the lower body is that the muscles are larger there and it is easier to do cardio. That being said...weight lifting will work the arms. Also, try wall pushups. Also you can get bands (like big rubber bands) in different strengths and use them in a variety of ways for repetitive exercise on the arms. Step on one with both legs, hold it in both hands and pull up. Hang it on something high (and strong) and pull down etc.

I was going to recommend push ups for the upper body. You can get strong really fast doing these. Since you are already weight training your upper body, there isn't a need to do too much more. Maybe try increasing your weights on the days you do upper body.