aka How To Become A Push-up Goddess.

We’ve all seen her. She’s that bad-ass (pardon the French) woman who can crank out at least one set of 10 perfect pushups. Many women envy her but we all know that upper body strength is a regular challenge for many women and that the elusive set of 10 good pushups is the ultimate goat (goat, not goal. That’s not a typo!) Well, I’ve worked with many women (and men) who couldn’t do 1 pushup to save their life when they first came to me and over the years, I’ve come up with a solid plan of attack. This method works. Why does it work? Because I don’t wast your time with knee push-ups or wall push-ups that don’t have as much carry-over skill. Depending on your current conditions it could take as little as 6 weeks to as long as 6 months but if you follow it they way I’ve outlined, you will get there. I PROMISE YOU!

First, let’s go over the checklist for a good, honest push up:

1. Tight plank throughout the entire rep – A straight line can be drawn from the heels to the top of the head. The pelvis doesn’t dip down nor does the butt stick up. The shoulder blades are retracted and depressed  (NEVER  shrugged up) while the chest is puffed out and proud. The neck is neutral meaning that your face is facing (pun intended) the ground and your head is not sticking forward. A good way to ensure this is to imagine that you’re holding a large grapefruit under your chin. Midsection and glutes are tightly contracted to maintain a tight, neutral spine.

2.Hand/arm placement – From a bird’s eye view looking straight down, at the very bottom of a push up, the triceps (or humeri) should be either flush against the lats, 45 degrees away or somewhere in between. To have your elbows flared out any more than this would cause instability in the shoulder joint. Hands should be placed accordingly to accommodate the desired angle. If you were to draw an imaginary line between your index knuckles and it happens to be at eye level, your elbows are flared out too much.

3. Full range of motion – Although partial push-ups have their place (even in this program which I’ll explain later) a full-fledged, God-honest push up starts with a full lockout of the elbows down until the chest touches the floor and back up to a full elbow lockout again.

Now, if you can’t do about 5 standard push ups off of the floor that meet the above criteria, your job is to find a surface to place your hands that will elevate your body high enough until you can. If you can’t do it from the floor, put an aerobics step platform under your hands. If that’s still not high enough, try a coffee table, if not that, a dinner table. If not that, the kitchen counter.

You get the idea right? You progress by lowering your surface over time. If you have access to a squat rack or a Smith machine you’re in luck because you can adjust the bar to almost any height you wish. This is also good because it allows for finer increments when progressing.

The Step-by-Step Plan:

1.Work on your push ups two to three times per week on non-consecutive days (Monday, Wednesday, Friday for example). Start with three sets of five reps (herein written as 3×5) at the lowest surface that will allow good form for all reps. Each week try to progress by lowering your surface until you can get to the ground for at least 3 repetitions. If you can’t do 3×5 at the new lowered surface, shoot for 5×3 or even 3×3. If you can’t do at least 9 total repetitions, that means the difference in surface height is too great. In this situation you would go back to your original height but add more total repetitions. You can either add one more rep per set (3×6) or add one more set (4×5 or 3×5 and then 1×3).

2. At some point along your progression, you’ll be able to do a few from the floor but at partial range of motion. Once you can do about 3 reps at no less than 30% range of motion, it’s time to modify your program. You’ll alternate your days between full range of motion with partial resistance (what I have outlined in step 1) and partial range of motion with full resistance.

For example:

Week 1:

Monday – Full range push ups off of the kitchen counter at 3×5

Wednesday – Partial range push ups off of the floor at 30% range of motion at 3×5

Friday – Full range push ups off of the kitchen counter at 3×6

Week 2:

Monday – Partial range push ups off of the floor at 50% range of motion at 3×5

Wednesday – Full range push ups off of the dinner table at 3×5

Friday -Partial range push ups off of the floor at 50% range of motion at 3×6

Your end goal is full range of motion AND full resistance (full resistance being a push up off of the floor) so by tackling the issue from both sides of the spectrum, they will eventually intersect. When you reach this point and can do about 3 standard pushups, it’s time to move on to step 3.

3. So now that you’ve got a few pushups under your belt, your next goal is to be able to do at least one set of ten reps (1×10). From here, you’ll do your 3 standard pushups and then follow them immediately with as many knee pushups as you can until you get to a point where you can do a total of 10 pushups, 3 standard, and 7 knee.

4. Now that you can do a total of 10, increase your standard pushup number by 1 and decrease your knee pushup by 1. So instead of 3/7, shoot for 4/6. Your goal is to get to 10/0. This is where you’ll have to be patient because at this point you’ll have been working on pushups for quite some time and progression with even one rep might take as long as a few weeks.

Final thoughts:

- Form and technique takes precedence over adding reps or lowering your surface. If you don’t apply this principle you’ll have the ugliest pushups in the world which will recruit the wrong muscles and produce muscular imbalances and postural problems. I PROMISE you! Always keep the shoulder blades retracted and depressed. NEVER let your chest cave in.

- With all of this added pushing, balance it out with equal amounts of pulling, preferably in the same horizontal plane. Examples include: bent over rows, cable rows, ring rows, Australian rows, t-bar rows, etc.

- Regularly address your mobility issues (even if you think you don’t have any). Finish off every pushup workout with some soft tissue release around the chest muscles using a tennis, baseball or golfball and at least 20 stick rolls.

If you have questions or need further clarification, don’t hesitate to email me at khalid@primalhealthsf.com

So yesterday I received the results of my first ever cholesterol report about 2 months shy of my 34th birthday. As you can see, I put out some pretty solid numbers despite the fact that many members on my mom’s side of the family have heart issues and high cholesterol.

If you’re new to this blog you wouldn’t know that I consume a high fat diet that includes many things that the “health community” would consider to be unhealthy.  This would include:
-whole eggs (4-6 per day)
-saturated fat
-red meat (both lean and fatty cuts but usually from naturally raised and naturally fed animals)
-dark chicken with skin

But keep in mind that by volume, I still consume more plants than animals and I exercise 4-5 days per week which includes an even mix of heavy lifting, cardio-vascular conditioning and overall athletic performance. Please don’t go around telling your friends, “Khalid from Primal Health said I can eat bacon and cheeseburgers all day!” and then go about doing so without omitting the neolithic carbs and processed foods from your diet or exercising regularly.

Anyway, my next report will be in a year from now. Wish me luck!

5 rounds for time of:
10 one-arm kettlebell swings (10 on one arm, then 10 on the other)
10 one-arm knee-supported kettlebell rows
20 double unders

Men’s weight:44lb/20kg kettlebell
Women’s weight: 26lb/12kg kettlebell

Scaling/Subs:
Sub 50 single jump rope skips for every 20 double unders. After the workout, practice your double unders.

My time was 11:05.

ENJOY!

This morning I gave a go to beef cupcakes. They’re topped with 1 chopped slice of bacon, a tomato slice and about a quarter once of cheddar cheese (not 100% paleo so sue me!) As usual, this is just a first draft. I’ll fine tune it a bit more and have a recipe ready for you all soon.

UPDATE, 2/23/2012:
Second draft went down today. This time I made them a bit hollow and filled the hole w/chopped celery. The other thing I did differently was that I put the tomato under the bacon and I cooked it at a higher temperature. Here’s the result:

The bacon was much crispier but I didn’t like who the ground beef felt and tasted. It seems like the tomato and the celery make the whole thing too watery. Hopefully third time will be a charm. I’ll keep you posted.

(The title should be read to the tune of “Lidia, oh Lidia. I wish I didn’t get riddiya” by K7.)

Anyway, what I love about living in Alameda, CA and being directly on the main street is that I’m so close to everything.  I got this dish from a Mexican restaurant called Juanita’s which is about 200 feet from my front door.  Obviously  you all know that I do most of my own cooking but Juanita’s comes in handy when I’m lazy or pinched for time.  And YES, I can stay within the paleo guidelines at a Mexican Restaurant.

Anyway, the dish is birria which is goat meat stew. This was my first time having it and I loved it. So much so that I’m going to look up a recipe and try to make it myself with some goat meat that’s grass-fed (or tin can-fed if that’s their natural diet).

Check back soon for the recipe!

Wow, who would’ve thought something like this would get me huffing and puffing as if I was running! I finished this workout about 5 minutes ago. I feel like my metabolism is going to be on fire for quite some time after this.

• Load up a barbell with bumper plates. I used 135lbs. A female of my equivalent strength and experience would probably use 105lbs. Scale according to your abilities.
• With chalk or cones, mark a distance of 30 meters. (if you have no measurement tools, go with 30 wide paces).
• Grab a sandbag. I used a 50lb’er.
• From point A, clean and jerk the barbell to an overhead position.
• Carry it overhead to point B.
• Walk back to point A and pick up the sandbag.
• With the sand bag over your shoulder, run back to point B.
• Repeat for a total of seven rounds.

I’m a bit upset that I haven’t discovered celery root (celeriac) sooner. I’ve been using it as a potato substitute and to be honest, not only is it as good but it’s actually better.  It’s got about the same texture w/a slightly better taste.  This was my first draft of a korma so I’m only posting a picture as a teaser. As soon as I perfect the recipe, I’ll be sure to post it.

The Burping Bear
5 rounds for time of:
200 meter run
20 meter bear crawl
8 burpees

10 clients of various skill levels completed this workout. For my athletes that are reading this: don’t worry, EVERYONE was gassed, not just you!  It definitely had every single one of you huffing and puffing.

So I divided this one into two groups. The Master’s Division is anyone who’s 40 years old or older. The Young Whippersnappers are those below 40 years old.

Due to the fact that everyone has been training with me for different lengths of time, some modifications had to be made. For those who were still working on getting their first few pushups, I substituted the burpees with squat thrusts. A squat thrust is basically a burpee sans push up. For those who were a little further along but still weren’t able to do 10 standard burpees, I subbed in elevated burpees. That means that instead of going dropping down into a push up from the ground, they dropped down onto a surface that was about knee height such as a bench.

Every trainer or coach could benefit from being coached themselves, even if it’s once in a while. I needed some brushing up on my olympic lifting so I booked a session at Glen Pendlay’s California Strength with a very good coach named Kevin Cornell.

I definitely learned a lot which will not only improve my own workouts and performance but will also help me become a better trainer and coach for my clients.