Annihilate – To defeat completely; vanquish.

That’s right people, we’re going beyond domination to destruction territory. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes, human sacrifices, dogs and cats living together…you get the point.

In my last post, I welcomed you to the wild and wonderful world of pushups. The variations in that post were all different ways of using your own bodyweight as resistance, but now that you’ve gotten your hands dirty and have a solid lay of the land, it’s time to take it to the next level.

Pushups have gotten a bad rep as far as strength and muscle building goes. When you’re starting out and can barely do one with good form they’re an appropriate exercise, but what happens when you can knock out 30 without even breaking a sweat? That’s what the nay sayers will use to dissuade you from this awesome exercise, but just like any other exercise, when it gets to easy then it’s time to progress to something more difficult.

Explosive Pushups

I think that this is the next step after a basic pushup is achieved. Instead of simply pushing into the ground & providing enough force to push yourself back up, you’re now pushing through the ground with enough force to launch into the air. This increase in force production increases the difficulty of the exercises and will definitely reduce the number of reps that you’re able to do compared to conventional pushups.

Unstable Surfaces

Now you’re getting both a strength benefit as well as a core and stabilization effect as well. Think about what’s harder, doing a pushup from the ground with 45lbs on your back, or doing that same pushup while trying to keep your arms from snapping off from the instability of the surface that you’re using? These variations can be achieved by using a suspension system such as the TRX, gymnastic rings or even a simple stability ball.

External Resistance

This is the big daddy right here. Simply put, if you’re not getting stronger over time then you’re seriously hindering your progress, and the easiest way to overcome this is to increase the load via external resistance. It doesn’t matter if you use weights, chains, resistance bands or have little people sit on your back while you do them, the key is to get stronger. If you start off only being able to do one push up with a band wrapped around your back, but after a couple of months you’re able to do 20, you have gotten stronger. Now it’s time to make it harder.

Single Arm Variations

Taking an exercise that you normally do with two limbs and demanding that your body perform it with only one is the epitome of hard. Aside from a one arm chin up, this is the hardest upper body exercise that there is, and it requires a perfect blend of strength and stability from the entire body, otherwise a weak link will expose itself and the exercise will look sloppier than a 1st grade art fair. Just like the regular push up, some of you will have to work your way up to doing a nice, crisp single arm push up from the floor, but there are enough variations to use along the way that’ll get you there with enough dedication and persistence.

Do you have any questions about the use of push ups? Want to know which variation is best for you and your goals? Lemme know in the comment section and I’ll be more than happy to help.

Ingredients:

60 grams or 1/4 cup low calorie BBQ sauce (1 calorie per gram)
42 grams or 2 tablespoons of honey
pinch of red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
454 grams or 1 pound chicken tenderloins
3 second spray non-stick cooking spray
3 grams or 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Combine BBQ sauce, honey, and red pepper flakes together in a small bowl.

2. Sprinkle garlic powder and salt (or seasoning of choice) on tenderloins.

3. Heat a large non-stick skillet over high heat and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

4. Add in strips, and cook until lightly brown, 3 minutes per side.

5. Turn heat down to low. Pour BBQ sauce over chicken and toss until coated and sauce is heated. Serve warm.

Yields 4 servings.

1 serving: 172 calories
26 grams protein
2 grams fat
12.5 grams carbohydrate

Entire recipe:

689 calories
105 grams protein
8 grams fat
50 grams carbohydrate

Impressions:

Awww hell yeah – now we’re talking! When I first saw this recipe, it pretty much grabbed my by the throat and forced me to cook it. Much like my friend Eric Cressey, I too was hooked on chicken fingers during my formative years (along with double orders of curly fries and an awesome hybrid called “chicken fries”, but I digress), so I had to check this one out based on principle alone. Up until recently, a dry chicken breast was the bane of my existence and I would do anything, even make sweet, passionate love to Janet Reno, to avoid having one as part of my menu, but this recipe changed my perspective entirely. To say that my plate was full of win would be an understatement.

The key to keeping any kind of  chicken breast juicy is to pan cook it for about 3-5 minutes per side on medium heat, making sure not to pierce the meat with a fork when flipping it unless you want all of the juice to drain out, leaving you with a dry, mummified piece of meat that would make King Tut look like Stacey Dash.

Now that the meat is primed and ready to go, the trifecta of BBQ sauce, honey and red pepper flakes really takes a rather dull piece of meat and snaps it to attention through a combination of sweetness & spice. Most BBQ sauces have at least 20 grams of carbohydrate per serving, and NOBODY just uses one serving of sauce, so it’s easy to see how it could quickly add up, but the sauce that I used only contained 6 grams of carbohydrate per serving without sacrificing taste.

This chicken is so good that it’ll make you wanna slap your momma! Taking less than 10 minutes total to cook, I give this recipe 4 thumbs up and then I will proceed to lick the rest of the sauce off said thumbs. If you’re in the market for more healthy & scrumdiddlyumptious foods, click this link here to check out the rest of Leigh’s cookbooks – you won’t regret it one bit.

Affiliate note: If you purchase any of her cookbooks by clicking the links on this page, I’ll get a small portion of the sale, but this in no way biases my review. I’ll never promote something on this site that I haven’t used personally or that I don’t think will be a great benefit to you all. That is my promise to you, and if you ever see me slipping on it PLEASE be sure to drag me out into the middle of the street and call me mean and hurtful names while force feeding me dragon boogers.

When it comes to the upper body, the push up is the last kid picked for a game of dodge ball of the exercise world, far behind the reigning king since the beginning of time, the bench press. I don’t want this to turn into a “the bench press sucks” post, because it doesn’t – if  done correctly, which many people don’t – but more of a celebration of the awesomeness that is the push up.

1.  It’s shoulder friendly

Shoulder pain is a frequent complaint of those who often sacrifice themselves upon the bench press alter. Now this could be due to a breakdown in form,  lifting with their ego instead of their head, or a host of other reasons, but suffice to say there is a lot going on in the bench press, and thus there are more things that can possibly go wrong during the lift.

With the push up, the opposite is true for most. With the reduced load, there is a lot less stress on the shoulder joint than during the bench press. Also, because you’re able to move your shoulder blades freely through space instead of having them pinned down against the bench, you get a lot better stabilization of the shoulder which translates to a much safer exercise.

2. It’s a full body exercise

If you’re looking for a full body exercise , then look no further. Have you ever noticed that as someone starts to fatigue (or if their strength levels aren’t up to par), their push up starts to resemble more of a candy cane?  They push their upper body up, but their lower back and legs hardly move at all. That’s because the push up, on top of being a fantastic strength exercise, is actually one of the best core exercises out there because it gives you immediate feedback – if your core is weak, you won’t be able to keep your spine stable while you’re pushing through the ground and your form will suffer because of it.

3. Anywhere, anytime

Pushing yourself up from the ground is one of the simplest movements that there is and there are so many different variations to choose from that there is no reason (aside from having lost both of your arms in an epic ninja battle) to not do them. You don’t need any fancy equipment to have a great workout, and there are enough challenging variations out there to keep you busy for a very long time.

• Squeeze your butt cheeks and keep your entire body tight.
• Don’t let your elbows flaring out at 90 degrees; Turn your hands out & keep your elbows tucked in fairly close so that your upper body resembles a “W”.
• Only go down as far as you can without letting your hips & lower back sag.

Here are few variations that I recorded that require almost no equipment to get you started. Keep in mind that this is just the beginning, and once you master the basic push up a whole wide world of pushing opens up to you.

What say you, faithful readers? Do you have a love/hate relationship with push ups? How do they fit into your program? Once I get at least 10 comments below,  I’ll post some more advanced push up variations that you can use to build some serious strength & muscle.

Photo Credit: 100 Pushups

It’s that time again.

Did you shove several pieces of something regrettable down your gullet that had no business being there?

Have you found yourself falling victim to The Itis one too many times lately?

I’ve done it, you’ve done it, and your friendly neighborhood postman has done it. Don’t let your food overindulgence fester and transform from one moment of weakness into a week, month or year long descent into decadent debauchery.

Don’t let the unnecessary stress rule your soul.Come forth, oh gluttonous one, and confess thy dietary sins – the truth shall set you free!

We are our own harshest critics.

Think about it: when was the last time you gave yourself credit for doing something that has been evading you like a Pokemon for the longest time? Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Have you been out of the gym for months or years but have finally gotten into a semi-regular habit of exercise? Celebrate that.

Did you recently get off your bootycheeks and find a new hobby or activity to break up the routine that you’ve found yourself in? Bust out the party hats because you know what time it is.

What about your diet? 9/10 times when given the choice between triple fried pig souls and an apple, you chose the former. More importantly though, what about the 1 time yesterday that you went the apple route? Yeah, baby, yeah!

Whatever it is that you’re trying to change, don’t delay celebrating yourself  and the small victories that you have along the way until you fully reach your goal. That day could be a long ways off, which isn’t too helpful from a motivational standpoint. Think of these as mini checkpoints. While they don’t signify the total achievement of your goal, they do mark milestones that must be reached along the way. To eat well for the rest of your life, you first must start with one day, then two, then three.

What small victory have you won that you haven’t celebrated yet? The subject matter is irrelevant – leave your victory in the comment section below so that I can throw you what will undoubtedly go down in history as THE BEST PARTY EVER!

Photo Credit: Aknacer