289/365 Push Up Variation using Elevation

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

Exercise is all about biomechanics. It's about understanding the force, resistance, and axis of the levers in your body and using them to your best mechanical advantage; this means making your exercises as efficient as possible. You can't just change where your elbow bends to make bicep curls easier. You can however change  your environment.

Now, I'm not sure how you can modify a bicep curl other than changing the weight but, here are ways to modify push ups. Last August I wrote about Three Ways to Push Up, presenting two more...

The first I would call Intermediate-Advanced.
1. Find a bench. Plant your hands on the edge the bench, fingers pointing away from you.
2. Walk your feet out so that your body is flat like a plank.
3. Push up as you normally would.

Try the second one if you are comfortable with your standard push up.
1. Find a step or low bench. Plant your toes on the top of the bench.
2. Walk your hands out to where they normally are for a push up.
3. Push up as you normally would.

In health,

Lauren

189/365 Ice Scraping is a Two-fer Exercise

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

Scraping ice off your car is just an excuse to get a shoulder girdle and a shoulder joint work out; at least that's how I'm going to think about it now.

A couple different muscles are involved when you scrape ice off your windshield. Your shoulder retracts to increase the area that you can scrape and protracts to scrape it. Your shoulder is also abducting to reach up to the windshield and horizontally adducting to scrape. Basically, scraping ice works lots of muscles in your shoulder girdle and joint.

To mimic this at the gym, you can use a cable while standing upright. Wait Lauren, isn't this like a bench press move? Yes, but, you are still working your shoulder because your pectoralis muscles are shoulder joint and girdle muscles! Neat!

In health,

Lauren

141/365 Winter Workout at Home: Push-Up Press Pyramid

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

My friend Tom told me about this exercise about a year ago. It was tough then and it was tough this morning when I lead it in my group exercise class.

The idea is to start with 10 push ups followed by 10 overhead presses without weights. Get a little rest then do 9 push up followed by 9 overhead presses. Get a little rest then do 8...I think you get the idea. This exercise is tough. You can start out easy by starting at 6 or 8. You can make it harder by getting up to 10. After that you can use weights with your overhead presses. The modifications are pretty endless. Instead of overhead presses, you could do lateral raises or frontal raises. You will feel your shoulders, core, back, and chest burning by the end, maybe even halfway through! I say that from sets 10 to 6 your body is at work. From 5 to the end, it's all in your head.

This pyramid can be done anywhere. It burns and you'll sweat. By the end, you'll be happy to have inserted it into your winter workout at home.

In health,

Lauren

115/365 For Your Chest and Abdominals

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

Your pectoralis major has several important actions. It helps you do practical things like sliding a door shut, pushing down the door to that machine that dries your swimsuit, and pushing yourself away from your desk when you're sitting in a rolling chair. Hence, we shouldn't forget it in our work out routines.

There are more ways to strengthen it than push ups and the bench press. You can do pec flys. This is one of my newest ways to do that while also working your abdominals.

1. Lie down on a mat or the floor.
2. Lift your legs up straight. While pressing your lower back into the floor making sure there is no space between you and floor, lower your legs down to the point where you're about to lose control.
3. Hold your weights to the side of you making a T.
4. Breathe in. Think about your chest muscles. Breathe out while squeezing your arms in above and in front of you. If you were to drop them they'd land on your face.
5. With control, bring your arms back to the T shape without touching the ground. Repeat 12 times for 2 sets.

In health,

Lauren

26/365 Three Ways to Push Up

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

Drop and give me 20! For some of you, this may be intimidating and you may think near impossible. However, you can get to doing push ups the standard way by going through these modifications first.

This what I like to call a Puppy Push Up because you start out on your hands and knees like a puppy. Position your knees hip-width apart and your butt right on top of your knees. Place your hands under your shoulders then walk them out laterally so that yours hands are slightly wider than your shoulders. Lower yourself down by bending your elbows until they reach 90 degree angles. Keep your back flat. Your hips are your hinges. Push yourself up thinking about your chest muscles squeezing together. Repeat.



If this is too easy, you can try this version instead. Instead of having your booty up in the air, bring it down so that it falls in line with your straight thighs, back, and neck (like in the picture). As before, lower yourself down with your elbows. Push yourself back up using those lovely pectoral muscles. The hinge is now your knees. You can either bring your feet up or keep them on the floor, either is good for me.

Once you've become comfortable with both of these, you can graduate to a standard push up. You can start by laying on your belly and positioning your hands a hands-width or more away from your shoulders. Push yourself up into a plank. Your ankles are your hinges. Same as before, lower yourself down until your arms are at 90 degree angles. If you can't get it to exactly that degree, it's okay, just work towards it. Push yourself back up and repeat.




In health,

Lauren