Some tubby guys like to wax nostalgically about Baseball ( I don’t really like Baseball by the way). I on the other hand like to get all sentimental about old movies, comics, old time athletes, and certain tride and true exercises. One of these is one of the best of the best. The push up. You can tweak them to build big strength or endurance. It’s basically a whole body exercise with emphasis on arms, shoulders, chest and abs. IF you  get good at doing lots of reps you can get in a beautiful rhythm of muscles relaxing/tensing, breathing and synchronizing movements. You can ALSO tweak them for a pretty big muscle pump. If you watch this week’s episode 10, you can learn how with slow push ups.

Many people think they need to bench press for big and or stronger tighter muscles. While its true that benching (correctly) will  build you up, push ups are a great alternative for most people. You get a lot of bang for your buck by investing your time in them. If you do nothing but lay on your back and bench then I would say you are missing out on a whole spectrum of muscles tightening and building. Besides that benching can (over time) and especially if you do it incorrectly, be very hard on your shoulders. Not to say that push ups can’t also be hard on your shoulders, but if you know what to do you will be fine.

A slow push up is done as follows. The lowering phase is done for a count of 6. That’s 6 seconds NOT a fast 6 count. Once at the bottom you hold for a count of one. Then a slow 4 count as you raise up. That is a total of 11 seconds for one push up! That means a long time to hold muscle tension. In the athletic world its called time under tension and it works.  It also means no sagging low back, head or hips. It means elbows in to your sides, shoulders away from your ears, hands about shoulder width and fingers about even with the tops of your shoulders.  See episode 3 for “safe” push up alignment. Do them this way and YOU WILL FEEL THEM! They ain’t easy. If you can do 5, with good form, you are doing well. Eventually though, for stupendous results, you should work up to 20 non stop. If that doesn’t build you up and tighten your muscles………..I don’t know what will.

How often should you do them? I would say do them for a 3 week phase. 3 times a week. See what happens. You may very well have to put your hands on a chair or box. Ladies may almost have to be on their knees. As you gain strength and endurance though, straighten those legs and do them like a regular push up. On the floor. After the 3 week phase take 3 weeks switch to the walk outs from episode 2. Do those for a 3 week phase. Then take an easy week and THEN switch back to a 3 week slow push ups phase. Give your shoulders a bit of a rest. If you have a big lard belly and it touches the floor way before you do then I would suggest starting a walking program today. Every day. Until you are going for an hour. Of course it goes without saying that the food you are eating is…..ahhh you know what I mean.

Don’t cheat yourself either! In my experience most people count way too fast. You want to keep your self honest? Come on not really, but I insist anyway. Put your watch right under your face and go by that. Remember its 6 seconds down, 1 second bottom hold, 4 second raise. If your form starts crumbling stop. Remember this is a whole body exercise and like it or not you are only as strong as your weakest link. Give that weak link time to catch up. Yes, I know you are impatient. Yes I know you want bigger numbers. Yes I now you want to see stuff happen, but…..and this is a BIG but, your whole body is a chain, and its not the strong link that rules your chain. It is the weak one. This is a big part of what exercise is all about. Its the Fusion. Strengthening the weak points so everything works better. More fit and less pain. Everything is designed to work together to make that magic happen. In this case the magic is strength, muscle endurance and developing those showy muscles that you KNOW you like.

Best,

Robert