I finally aced this yoga pigeon position. Of course there are plenty of ways to go deeper into this. I’ve seen dancers grab the ankle above the head. That would be a good 8 to 12 inches deeper into this. But I’m happy, as I was able to switch hands!!
elbow step-up handstand pushups
I never really tried these until a couple of weeks ago. I ran into a video on YouTube, and started working this against the wall.In yoga there’s something called a forearm stand, which is like a handstand where the entire arm from elbow to hand is used as your base. I’ve seen breakers jump up to handstand from this, but they usually do some sort of abdominal kick to get there. I worked it for a few weeks, and get a set of ten (five each arm) on video:
When you get bored of that video, take a look at this guy doing those without the wall!!
Crow Elbow Press
I’m going to call this the crow elbow press. It’s inspired a bit by the yoga “Crow” position, but also by the Capoeira Queda de Rins. Queda de Rins is pronounced kada ja hines, and means elbow to the kidney. This trick uses the triceps, abs, forearm, and lats to keep balance. It’s harder than it looks, believe me.
One day I will kick into handstand and come down on the elbow of the other side, that would be the expert or extreme version of this trick!
Deep Press Triceps Pushups
I learned these pushups a few months back from a crazy russian guy. He says if you work these enough, it’ll help with the muscle-up on rings or a pullup bar. Who knows… They definitely work the triceps and shoulders like crazy.
Happy Shoulder Stretching New Year!
I know how everybody likes to avoid, or just slack on their stretching. I do it too. But you know, stretching is important! Flexibility promotes circulation, and nutrients at the joint, and discourages injury. My personal feeling is it helps muscle to recover and grow quicker too, though I’m not sure if this is scientifically proven. Anyway, on to the good stuff.
First stretch is to work each shoulder in opposite directions. This picture is the basic version. Even you big guys out there who lift a lot (or should I say especially you guys) should be doing this.
Once you work your fingers together doing this, you’ll eventually be able to touch your fingers together like this:
An advanced version takes it further, so you grab the whole hand as far as possible:
I’ve seen it done where people actually can grab the opposite wrist. I’m not there yet, but hey, it’s worth trying!
Next is your basic backbend. When you do this push the weight up into the shoulders as much as possible to reduce strain on the lower back:
We’re not done yet. There are still two more ways that I know of to stretch the shoulders. This next one is a great opposing stretch if you work the pecks a lot. This really stretches straight across the front of your chest. It also stretches the elbow joint. I should know the name. It will feel like the hamstring of your arm if you will, which really doesn’t get stretched very often:
Obviously you can use as long a piece of rope as you need to. I’ve seen younger people touch the hands together. So there is really no limit to how flexible you *COULD* be here.
Last but not least, let’s work the shoulders for the illusive manna move. This stretch will feel uncomfortable at first, because you may have never stretched your shoulders this way before.
And that’s it. Over and out, and Happy New Year. Good luck with all your training in 2008!
Planche Pushup Progression
I’ve been working on the planche, a difficult gymnastics trick considered to be one of the most challenging to achieve. Dragon Door has a very excellent article on conditioning for the planche pushup called Building an Olympic Bodythrough Bodyweight Conditioning by Christopher Sommer.
My progression has me starting to do the “advanced tuck planche” for about 15 seconds, while I can do a more basic ball planche for 60 seconds. I *do* work the planche pushups with my feet on the floor, but it is dramatically harder to lift your feet off the floor because in order to get that leverage your hands really have to be down at or below your hips. That makes the strength involved by your anterior (front) deltoid, and pectoral muscles, as well as some triceps strength to be on the extreme end.
Here’s a great YouTube video of a guy doing a few planche pushups properly.
If anyone has access to resources explaining how to calculate the strength of gymnastics and other bodyweight conditioning exercises, when changing the angle or leverage, I would be very interested in this. Please contact me!
Eight Tools For Training
If you’re interested in buying any of the items I talk about in this piece, head over to my list at thisnext.com: Eight Training Essentials.
Ab Wheel
This is a simple, no nonsense piece of training equipment that everyone can afford, and find space for. What’s more with regular use, it *will* give you the abs of steel you’re looking for. I also find it a safe, and injury free way to work the abs.
Camelbak
Camelbak is a recent addition to my training regimen. Why do I like it? For one it keeps you hydrated, and that keeps your energy level up. For two you can load it with small weights to give you a makeshift weight vest. Three you can carry stuff like a jumprope, or whatever else you might want to train with. And four, it makes all the bodyweight exercises I do that much more challenging. 10x 5sets of pullups? Add 10 pounds and you’ll see the difference. Clapping, fingertip, and one-arm pushups with a 10lb pack are very challenging.
Jump Rope
Weighted jump ropes are a great full body workout. Work the ankles and legs without a lot of pounding on the heels, get a sprint workout without needing much space. Jump roping can be worked forward or backward, for 30 seconds, or 5 minutes. Throw in crossed arms, or swing the rope around twice in one jump for extra challenge.
I like to train with used climbing rope. Most climbing gyms rotate their ropes every 3-6 months. The old rope is no longer good for climbing, but it makes excellent weighted jump rope. Not heavy enough you say? Soak your rope in water, and you’ll feel the burn!Door Gym
Want to integrate pullups into your everyday routine. Here’s an easy way to do it. You’re not always at the gym, or the park where you can do pullups, and this doorgym can install in most any doorway. You can also use it for pushups, and as makeshift parallettes if you don’t have those.
Doorgym
Want to integrate pullups into your everyday routine. Here’s an easy way to do it. You’re not always at the gym, or the park where you can do pullups, and this doorgym can install in most any doorway. You can also use it for pushups, and as makeshift parallettes if you don’t have those.
Parallettes
Parallettes are a portable, practical way to do gymnastics type training in your home or apartment. You can do pushups, v-sit, l-sit, planche work, handstands, and all sorts of other core strength training using parallettes.
Yoga Blocks
Yoga blocks are not just for Yoga fiends anymore. These are indispensible training tools. Extend deeper into a pushup, work a v-sit or planche with a less stable base, or do your daily stretching, yoga blocks can help with all of these.
Forerunner 305
It’s the best runners watch I’ve found yet. Tracks your distance precisely with GPS, and also knows your speed constantly during your run. The heart monitor is better than most because it has a small watch battery as power source. Less interference with other radio devices etc. If all that isn’t enough, the watch plugs into your computer via USB, to sync a ton of data about each workout. Looking at all of this later reveals a lot, and the Garmin Training Center software is very good.
Fitness Ball
Nevermind the cheesy shows using the fitness ball on FitTV. This is serious exercise equipment. Ever try to do pushups with your legs elevated, and your hands on the ball and you’ll see what I mean. Or work the gymnastics planche with the ball providing minimal support. There are lots of very challenging exercises you can do with these.
The 21 Pushup Challenge
Short on time, but want a fairly simple, full-body workout? Here’s one I used to do at the end of a day at the rock climbing gym to provide exercise to complementary muscle groups. Since rock climbing is mostly pulling, pushups work great.
First, I want you to focus on good pushup posture. Keep your low back rounded, never arched. If you’re not ready to do pushups from your toes, use your knees instead. Once you can complete the 21 sets from your knees, you’re ready to start from your toes. Ok, what’s the challenge?
Start by doing one pushup, walk the length of the room, and back to that same position. Now do two pushups. Walk the length of the room and back again, now three pushups. Keep doing these sets, increasing by one pushup each time. Since you’re only giving your muscles 15-20 seconds rest each time, this gets progressively harder. My old gymnastics coach used to say if you can do all 21 sets, you’re hardcore! Haha well once I reached that, I started doing the 21 sets with 5-10lbs in a backpack. Now that is tough.
What I like about this exercise is that it provides it’s own built-in warmup. The first few sets are very easy. It also builds confidence, allows your muscles to warm up, and gets you into the spirit of it before the tougher sets. It works the triceps, the deltoids (shoulders), abdominals, and hip flexors.
When you’re finished you’ll have completed 231 pushups in about 10 minutes. For extra challenge, as I noted above, add weight, or work your way up to 25 pushups. If that’s not enough, try doing them all as clap pushups, or even better, one-arm pushups!!
Now of course being the good personal trainer I’m gonna ask that you please stretch your shoulders before doing this exercise. I know how you all love to stretch right? I’ll be posting a discussion just about shoulder stretching soon enough.
Basics – Proper Breathing Technique
You’re not alone if your yoga instructor or lifting trainer are constantly reminding you to breathe. It happens to me all the time.
Before you can practice your training with good breathing technique you’ll need to understand the what and why. When you exert yourself to lift a weight, or lift your body, you raise your blood pressure. If you hold your breath, you raise your blood pressure even higher. Not only is it an additional strain on your body, but it makes you weaker.
At the most basic level you should simply remind your self to breathe at all. Some breathing is better than holding your breath. But for optimal training you’ll want to breath *OUT* while doing the hardest part, the “positive” portion of the exercise. For a pullup this is going up, for a pushup, it is when you lift your body off the ground. For a bench press it is as you lift the weight away from your body. Conversely, you’ll want to breath *IN* while you’re doing the release part, letting yourself down from the pullup bar, allowing the barbell to come down, or easing your body towards the floor – the down phase – of a pushup.
If you’re doing yoga it may be less obvious when to breathe in and when to breathe out. Luckily most yoga classes provide the constant advice and direction that will keep you on the path to optimal breathing technique.
It is also worth mentioning that proper breathing is important to stretching and running as well. But I’ll leave those discussions to future postings.