The Top 5 Bonafide Superstar Push-up Progressions

Push-ups. Everyone knows ‘em. Very few can actually do ‘em. In fact, I’d wager that only about 38% of gym goers — young or old, athletic or couch potatoic — can do a single good one, let alone multiple sets of multiple reps like I do in the video below. (Go me!) Maybe even a smaller percentage than 38, but 38 is my lucky number, so we’ll go with that.

Why the epically bad performance on such a staple exercise? First and foremost, there’s a definite lack of awareness about what constitutes proper form:

• Proper form begins with the setup: wrists stacked directly under the shoulders and a straight line from head to heels. To achieve that straight line, the abs must be braced and the glutes (butt muscles) must be squeezed. This will necessitate a gaze neither ahead nor directly at the floor, but rather downward at a 45° angle. If you don’t get the setup right, the actual movement is doomed for sure.

• Proper form continues with a slow and controlled descent at least to the point at which the upper arms are parallel to the floor (elbow angle equals 90°), if not deeper if you're able and pain free. On the descent, the elbows should track inward at 45°. When viewed from above, the torso and upper arms should form an arrow, not a ‘T.’

• Throughout this descent, the same straight line from the setup must be preserved without deviation. Everything moves as one rigid unit. (Ipso facto, the push-up is really just a moving plank!) Hip sag and lower back sway are not okay, and the hip pike is also right out. Tension in the abs and glutes must be maintained.

• Proper form finishes with a strong ascent to return to the starting position. The ascent is the exact opposite motion of the descent. No funny business is to be allowed at the hips, lower back, or neck. The upper body should not rise up before the lower body. Unless you are a seal. Which you are not.

The 5 Lower Body Technique Mistakes You've Been Making [Muscle & Strength]

"Your legs aren’t growing. You’ve tried everything: squats, deadlifts, Olympic lifts, lunges, low reps, high reps, two-a-days, protein powders, and blood flow restriction. You name it, you’ve tried it and it didn’t work. Your legs bring new meaning to the expression “hardgainer.”

The one aspect of training that you may (perhaps unknowingly) have failed to master, though, is proper form...."

Continue reading my new article, The 5 Lower Body Technique Mistakes You've Been Making, at muscleandstrength.com. The article includes side-by-side videos of proper and improper form. The videos were painstakingly crafted to make the errors crystal clear for your viewing and educational pleasure.

Click the link to continue reading:

>https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/5-form-mistakes-youre-making

4 Easy, Reliable, and Valid Fitness Tests to Measure Progress

Guest Post by Jen Sinkler

“What gets measured gets improved.” It may be clichéd to quote leadership expert Robin Sharma in yet another fitness post, but you know why clichés are a thing? Because they’re based in reality. And this quote nails it.

We’re flush in an age where tracking your fitness is fashionable. From Garmins to Fitbits to Apple Watches, collecting and measuring data has never been easier. But is there something they’re missing? 

When clients and gym members ask how to measure progress, it usually turns into a discussion revisiting what exactly they’d like to achieve. If their method of tracking isn't measuring what they actually want to improve, I’m wasting their precious time.

At The Movement Minneapolis, the gym I co-own with my husband, David Dellanave, we use custom-built tracking software to measure every workout. In the context of strength, we make it easy for members to see if they’ve loaded more on the bar or if they’ve become able to perform a few more reps week by week. They periodically test their strength in the way of five-, three-, or (for some clients) one-rep max attempts, keeping the intensity appropriate for their lifting experience.

As I mentioned earlier, for a test to be valid, it needs to measure what you’d like to improve. Another key piece of the puzzle is finding a reliable test. Meaning, you’re able to reproduce it so that you can compare each data point objectively and learn if you’re headed in the right direction or not. As we say at the gym, “better questions lead to better answers.”

Measuring strength is pretty simple — achieving the same range of motion, can you lift more than the previous week or max attempt? Cardiovascular endurance is also straightforward — assuming you’re running the same distance each time, are your times increasing or decreasing?

But how do we effectively measure athletic qualities? The plot thickens, and I’m so glad you asked. (Or that I pretended that you did, rather.)

Enter the Broad Jump, 10- and 40-Yard Dash and Pro Agility tests. I like these tests for several reasons:

• They measure qualities that are applicable to training goals involving speed, agility, and explosive power.
• Their simplicity allows for reliable results, allowing me to know for certain if I’m moving the needle in the direction I want to go, or if I need to make adjustments in my training.
• They’re easy to do with minimal equipment. You need only a little space, a tape measure, and a stopwatch.

If you’re interested in measuring your current athleticism in this manner, try the tests below.

4 Secrets to Faster Sprinting

If you’re on offense in American Football, a sack is the last thing you want. It often means an ugly hit to the quarterback (and his ego) as well as a possible loss of yardage. Ironically, though, SAQ is actually the best way to avoid getting sacked.

SAQ stands, of course, for speed, agility, and quickness. Having been a swimmer for the better part of a decade, I didn’t know much about SAQ until I attended the National Personal Training Institute of Philadelphia, where we did weekly SAQ training.

Being an amputee, I was a little reluctant at first to partake. I wasn’t able to do all of the drills, and even the ones I did do, I knew I looked funny doing them. Fortunately, I eventually overcame my fear of failure and embarrassment and just went for it. As it turned out, I was the best in the class at the single-leg locomotion drills!

Fast forward to 2016 and my recently completed internship at Endeavor Sports Performance, where I coached kids in SAQ every single day. Our warm-up was chock-full of locomotion drills like butt kickers, high knee skips, side shuffles, carioca, back pedaling, and sprints.

4 Cues for Arm Drive

Even more important than learning how to execute these drills myself, I had to learn to teach them to young athletes. As anyone who’s worked with children before knows, different children learn in different ways. Some are visual learners, some are auditory learners, and some are tactile learners. Therefore, I had to refine a variety of coaching skills in order to get the athletes to perform the way I wanted.

The 10 Most Effective Mind-Muscle Connection Exercises for Your Upper Body

By James Harris and Travis Pollen

Hey! James here. A question I have long pondered is whether or not it matters if you “feel” a muscle actually working. I've had many trainees ask me this question over the years and I’ve always expressed my doubts in response. Well, now the research is out and Travis and I are here to talk about it.

Today, in the first of a two part series, we will be discussing muscles of the upper body that many trainees complain they don't feel. We’ll also talk about whether or not feeling it matters, and how to create more of a brain connection to the muscles you’re working in order to get a good muscle pump going.

Reminder: Don't forget to stay tuned for the next installment -- The 10 Most Effective Mind-Muscle Connection Exercises for Your Lower Body -- this Wednesday on www.titaniumstrength.org!

WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS

Over the years, trainers and trainees alike have evolved in their understanding of the human body. We hear about the new research and immediately all jump on the bandwagon. 

Low carb diets work the best.

No! High carb works the best!

High volume, lighter workouts for muscle growth!

No! Low volume, heavier workouts for muscle growth!

You get the idea.

Here's the thing: there is no one right answer. Most things in fitness need context. Except rounding your lower back during a deadlift. That's unanimously agreed upon to be a bad idea.