Think you’ve graduated from using the push-up in your program? You may want to reconsider. There are many benefits of including the push-up in your program including better core stability, upper body strength, and shoulder health.

The reason some lifters think they’ve graduated from this exercise is that the loading just isn’t the same as on the bench press as you’re only lifting 2/3 of your bodyweight.

Not only do these variations take a great exercise and progress it, but they can serve to add variety to your program and keep things interesting. Here are the first four ways to progress the difficulty of the conventional push-up.

1. Explosive Push-up –> Do you remember the clap push-up? From the up position, come down as in a normal push-up and push off the ground fast enough so that you’re upper body comes off the ground, allowing your to clap your hands in mid air. You don’t have to do the clap, and can instead decide to push as hard as possible. These will get you fatigued quickly and are great for upper body power.
2. Use Chains. I see many guys trying to balance plates on their back in an attempt to add external loading. I’ve tried this, and found it to be a pain in the butt. If you have access to chains, you can drape these over your back. You can make them even more difficult by simply adding more chains or moving them closer to your neck. It helps to have a partner help you out with these.
3. Use Bands. Take about a 1 inch band, loop your hands through the ends with the middle of the band behind your back. Get in normal push-up position so that your hands are over the ends of the band, keeping it in place while you perform the push-up.
4. Increase your range of motion. Putting your hands on blocks or using dumbbells will allow you to go down further on your push-ups. You’d be surprised at the difference a few more inches makes in doing your push-ups.

I’ll include the next 5 ways of increasing the difficulty of your push-ups in the next post so stay tuned!

In the mean time, if you’d like to know how to increase the amount of push-ups you can do, be sure to check out my post, How do I increase my push-ups for the military?. It contains a useful link to Bill Hartman’s blog, which goes into some great detail.

P.S. Be sure to check out the audio below.

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Related Posts

9 Ways to Increase the Difficulty of a Push-up (Part 2)

Video Demo of Push-up Variations

How do I increase my push-ups for the military?

Technorati Tags: bodyweight-training, exercise selection, push-up progressions, push-ups, strength training

Maybe this type of person is more annoying to the personal trainer than to the average gym goer.

But nonetheless.. I was in a crabby mood at the gym in that I have a cold (boo hoo I know), but this person just annoyed me today.

On with the rant..

While at the gym today, I noticed a girl chatting with her friend while she was performing lunges. Of course her form was flat our horrendous–and she wasn’t even looking straight ahead, but to the side so she could talk with her friend.

If you listened to the tone of the conversation, you may have mistaken her for being out to lunch, while having a nice friendly chat–lunges were the last thing on her mind..

Is she getting any stronger? Not really..

Is she stimulating any kind of fat loss? Not really..

Is she improving her technique so she can progress in the future? NO WAY..

Does she care? Who knows!

Maybe I’m biased because I read about strength training and exercise a lot of the day, and I train clients the rest of the day, but why not try to accomplish something while you exercise??? Even if you don’t consider yourself an “execise nut”.

I don’t get it.

If you can offer an opinion on what’s going through her mind, please let me know by commenting on the blog–ANY IDEAS ARE WELCOME–really.

Technorati Tags: annoying gym goer, exercise-form, training-philosophy

Every gym has an annoying type of lifter. You know - that one person that always seems to be there when you’re trying to get your work done.. And for whatever reason, they ANNOY the crap out of you.

Being a personal trainer, I spend more time in the gym in one day than most people do in an entire week (or month). Combine this with that fact that I can’t help but observe other people’s sessions, analyze their exercise selection and exercise form, and it’s inevitable that there is going to be a lot of stuff that gets under my skin.

This week’s winner is: The Lat Pulldown Guy.

Who is the lat pulldown guy? All I can tell you is that he’s an older gentleman, with a protruding gut who apparently thinks it’s effective to stack as much weight as possible on the lat pulldown and use any means necessary to get the weight to move.

No joke - He actually lifts his butt completely off the seat, grasps the handle, and then flings himself back down into the seat while swinging his body backward in order to move the weight.

Really.

Why don’t you just stand up, grab the handle with both hands, and walk the weight back tug-of-war style?

What is he trying to accomplish? I don’t know.

Does he look strong by lifting three quarters of a stack using the technique of standing up out of the seat and violently rocking backwards? NO

Is what he is doing working in getting him to his goals? NO (remember his gut).

It’s amazing how you I can tell from watching someone perform one exercise, that they are completely wasting their time in the gym. Usually it won’t bother me, but when the gym is crowded and my client and I can’t get on the lat pulldown because lat pulldown guy is showing off how “strong” he is, I get a little bit frustrated, to put it lightly.

There’s also the added bonus that he likes to ignore you when you try to work in with him. Yeah, he just kind of stares straight ahead, pretending to mentally prepare for his next grueling set of violently rocking back and forth.

I mean, if you’re so strong, go do a bodyweight pull-up. I’d pay to see that. Of course, he’d probably grasp the pull-up handles and jump in the air to get up (that is, even if he can jump that high).

So what can we learn from lat pulldown guy? Bear with me here..

Though he is an extreme case, we all may have an exercise where we could benefit from knocking back the weight a little bit, and getting back to proper form. We must remind ourselves the purpose of the particular movement that we’re trying to execute. An article I read recently reminded me how important proper form is on the deadlift, and I realized my form has been a little sloppy of late - so I cut back the weight a little bit and returned to deadlifting with solid form.

WEW! I feel better.

Do you have a particular annoying gym goer you’d like to rant about? Please comment and get it off your chest!

Technorati Tags: annoying gym goer, exercise-form, lat pulldown, rant

Question:

What are the 3 major groups to be worked out for upper body? ex. Back+Biceps, i forgot

Answer:

Instead of answering the question directly, I’m going to challenge you to rethink your approach to designing your program. Rather than focusing on body parts (which is actually an outdated method), try focusing on your movements.

The basic movements are:

Upperbody

• Horizontal push (like bench, pushups)
• Horizontal Pull (rows)
• Vertical Push (shoulder press,military)
• Vertical Pull (Pullups, lat pullovers)

• also, elbow flexion, and elbow extension movements

Lower Body

• Bilateral Hip dominant (deadlifts, RDL’s)
• Bilateral Quad Dominant (front squats, back squats, explosive squats)
• Unilateral Hip Dominant (stepups, 1 leg hip extension)
• Unilateral Quad Dominant (Lunges, 1 leg squats, split squats)

and CORE

Any program should include each of these types of movements to be complete. If you include these, the body parts will take care of themselves.

Another good idea is to superset opposing movements- Like a horizontal pull with a horizontal push, etc..

That’s right - no more worrying about which body part to hit when - just include each one of these movements, and you’ll have a complete, balanced program. Depending on your training frequency, you may want to split these movements up throughout the week - but this approach should be a good start for you and to get you thinking differently.

Do you still use body part splits?

Have you had success with movement based splits?

I’d love to hear them so please let your voice be heard. And be sure to click play below and listen to my amateur podcast.

Technorati Tags: body part splits, exercise selection, movement selection, Program Design, strength training

Question:

I do push-ups all day and they’re not getting any easier. I’m about to join the military and have been working out for about 4 months. I’ve lost 30 pounds and feel much better about my physical abilities. At first I couldn’t do 10 good push-ups in a row, now I can do intervals of 25. I’ve been stuck at 25 for a long time and it’s not improving. I feel It would be better if I could do at least 40 or 50 at a time. How do I get there quickly?

Answer:

First, great job losing 30 pounds and going from being able to do only 10 push-ups in a row to sets of 25. That’s a 150% increase in your push-ups!

Second, I feel for you, as the military is very demanding. You have to pass the situp test, the 2 mile test, and the push-up test. This requires you maintain a blend of athletic attributes - Primarily, strength, muscle endurance, and cardiovascular fitness. Not to mention extreme mental toughness..

Focusing on the push-up, there are three main things you’re going to want to address in order to increase this number.

• Stability - Your ability to maintain a good push-up position without your shoulder girdle or core stabilizers becoming fatigued. To improve this, try performing holds in the down position, planks, and side bridges. Also scapular stabilization exercises such the scap push-up and the wall slide will help.

• Maximal Strength - Your ability to lift a heavier loads with fewer reps. To improve this, you can add weight to your push-up in the form of plates or chains and propping your feet in the air. I’m also a big fan of heavy bench pressing (1-6 RM) in order to increase raw strength.
• Strength Endurance - Your ability to lift a lighter load for higher reps. Try performing max push-ups in a certain amount of time (I think the army test is 2:00, right?). Of you can break it up into smaller times intervals and try to set new records with that amount of time. Performing high rep bench presses with lighter weight is also an idea.

In addition the exercises listed above, something simple that may be overlooked is your weight. Especially if it’s mostly FAT.

Think about it…

When performing a military style push-up, you are lifting approximately 2/3 of your body weight. So, if you weigh less, that is automatically going to make the exercise easier and allow your to increase your total number of push-ups.

Simple, huh?

Anyway, if you’re reading this post, your main goal is likely to pass the military basic training test. If you’re really willing to do whatever it takes to get this accomplished, you should invest in some expert help. Or if you’re more of a do-it-your-selfer, you can do the next best thing and invest in a system that works.

In his book, Eric does a great job going through EXACTLY what you need to do in order to get in to military kind of shape.

You can check it out here: Invincible Fitness: Basic Training

Now go get to work! I hope this info helps all you future soldiers out there - I really admire what you all do. Best of luck becoming a push-up machine and making it in the military!

Related Posts

9 Ways to Increase the Difficulty of a Push-up (Part 1)

9 Ways to Increase the Difficulty of a Push-up (Part 2)

Video Demo of Push-up Variations

Technorati Tags: Core Training, hartman, muscle endurance, push-ups, stability, strength training

Remember the good old days as a kid–running around on the playground, playing tag, pickup basketball, kickball, stickball, or just a made up game. .?

If you’re in to video games or fitness at all, you’ll probably find this video funny-I did.

Check it out here.

Technorati Tags: comic-relief, Overall Health, video

Question:

Hey, Doug! Whenever I’ve gone to the gym to do high interval training, I usually lift (three of the six days per week). I’m in pretty nice shape (15″ toned biceps, 42″ chest), but I want to take it to the next level. For the last 5 years, I’ve used machines, and they seem to have worked very well. That is, up until now. Is there a point where you can “max out” or should I switch to the more traditional free weights?

Answer:

Great job committing to a regular training plan and sticking to it, and congrats on seeing results in the form of increases in strength and muscle mass.

Before I get directly into your question, I’d like to get in to why I prefer free weights over machines by starting with a question of my own..

When moving an object or your own body in real life, is it on a fixed axis where all you have to do is apply force?

The answer is no–you have to use coordination and balance along with your overall strength in order to perform real life movements.

Machine movements have very little in common with real life movements like picking things up, bending down, lifting stuff over your head, etc. Not only does this type of training not train balance and coordination, but it renders your stabilizer muscles, tendons, and ligaments useless because the axis of the machine is acting in place of these stabilizers.

Imagine for a moment learning to walk as a child. You must go through the steps of the learning process–standing up, taking a step, falling over, trying again, etc. etc..

Now imagine this..

Instead of learning to walk in real life, (which is difficult) you are restricted to using four machines to build up your leg muscles so that you will be strong enough to walk. With one machine, you have to extend your knee, with another machine, you flex your knee , with another machine you extend at the hip, and with the final machine you flex at the hip. You could add resistance (instead of gravity) so that you could build strength in your leg muscles.

What’s going to happen when you take the machine away and try to walk?

You guessed it..

You’re going to fall flat on your face.

Sure, you have built up “strength” in your main leg muscles, but your stabilizers are extremely weak and, more importantly, you don’t have the coordination to carry out such a complex task.

The same principle applies to your strength training.

I’ve read some articles that do a great job explaining the importance of using free weights in much more detail (unfortunately I don’t have them with me), but what I can tell you is it important to be able to move your own bodyweight and other weights without the security of a fixed axis. Using free weights forces you to actually develop the coordination and balance that you need in order to carry over in to the real world movements.

Isn’t that just as important if not more important than training purely for aesthetic purposes? If not, it should be, in my humble opinion.

Also by using free weights, your tendons, ligaments, and stabilizer muscles will develop properly, which will allow you to lift more weight, which will get you stronger and prevent injury, which will actually allow you to develop more muscle and to “look the part”.

So go out and start learning some basic free weight movements like squats, deadlifts, lunges, pushups, pullups, and rows. You’ll likely have to begin with lighter weights than you do on your machines until you develop the coordination and appropriate stabilizers to execute these movements safely with more weight–this can be tough to swallow at first, but it will be worth it in the long run. Leave your pride at the door!

To answer your question more directly, in addition to being healthier you’ll definitely have more room to grow in mastering the use of free weights–especially when you’ve implemented an optimal strength or muscle building program.

I hope this helps. As always, questions and comments are encouraged on the blog!

Technorati Tags: bodyweight-training, exercise selection, free weights, functional training, machines, stabilizers, strength training