Time is a huge commodity in this day and age, especially if you have a family.
There are a number of different “things” pulling you in multiple directions all day long.
This makes trying to lose weight, and trying to lose weight fast, a pretty difficult thing to do.
Add to that the confused state you’re put into because of all the different things people tell you to do. Should you focus on this strict diet, or the super-intense workout program?
Should you do an extreme diet for a week or two, or go to the exercise class?
It makes my head spin, so I can’t imagine what it is doing to you!
To help you along the weight loss path, here’s a quick tip to help you lose fat fast…
Focus on Whole Body Fitness
All too often we tend to focus on different body parts, as if we can separate out one portion of your body to work over the other.
There’s a time and place for this, but if you’re focusing on losing weight, you’re going to be much better off focusing on your entire body rather than splitting it into “parts” like your abs, legs, chest or arms.
When you make that switch in your brain to focusing on exercising your entire body, and go even further in working as many muscle groups possible per exercise, while minimizing overall workout time, your results will skyrocket and the fat will fall off your body.
To better explain this, let’s say, as an example, you want to lose weight off your stomach and get a stronger core.
Many magazine articles, infomercials and television shows will tell you to focus on your abs by doing isolation movements because that’s the part of your body you want to see a change in, and your mind may even take you in that direction because it seems silly to do something other than an abs exercise to lose weight off your stomach.
I get that…but it’s not helping you lose fat, and it sure as hell won’t help you lose weight fast.
I encourage my clients who are looking to shed weight from their stomachs, to instead focus on exercises like Burpees, Push-ups, Lunges, Rows and Squats, and the various different types of each of those exercises, if they really want to see results quickly.
Calories are burned in your muscles and if you want to lose weight from your stomach (which is really just stored calories waiting to be burned) you need to move as much of your body at once as possible.
I’m going to take 2 of those exercises listed above and better explain what I’m saying.
We’ll take a push-up and lunge and pair them back to back and do as many supersets possible in 7 minutes.
The push-ups work your chest, upper back, shoulders, back of your arms (triceps), butt, low back AND abs.
The lunges, when done properly, work your thighs, hamstrings, butt, low back AND abs.
Put those 2 exercises together and you have hit virtually every muscle in your body and turned yourself into a calorie-burning machine.
Also notice that both of those exercises worked your abs. Sure they do it differently than something like crunches, but they still work your abs. The push-up is basically a moving Plank, and the lunges work your abs by keeping your upper body upright rather than falling over. (To see a video demonstrating a few different Push-up variations, click here).
See what I’m getting at here?
If you want to lose weight fast, you need to focus on your entire body…not just parts of your body.
Do that and you will lose weight, and you’ll lose if FAST.
Talk soon!
ed
To discover 3 super simple components that all workout programs should have, be sure to check out the video at --> www.FatLossToGo.com!
Showing posts with label push-ups. Show all posts
Showing posts with label push-ups. Show all posts
Monday, July 18, 2011
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Are Those Stupid Push-Ups Really Necessary and Can They Really Help Me Lose Stomach Fat?
Here's a question/comment I get quite often and how to get past this common workout problem.
Question: "What if I can't do push-ups?" Or. "What if I can only do 5 push-ups but your workout calls for 10?"
A: Surprisingly this is a pretty common problem. Many people are either too heavy or too weak to perform a single push-up. Or if they can do push-ups they can't do very many at one time. (FYI: You can substitute virtually any exercise for push-ups like squats, planks, lunges, etc. that people have trouble doing)
That's not a good problem to have, but it's not the end of the world if you take action.
There are a few reasons you may not be able to do any push-ups (or very few).
The obvious ones are that you're too heavy or too weak. That's easy.
However, there are some people who are relatively strong and not too heavy who still can't do push-ups. They may be able to do a decent amount of weight in exercises like the dumbbell chest press or machine chest press, but push-ups are just too darn hard.
These people may be weak in their core. I say that because if your low back, abs and all the little, deep stabilizer muscles aren't strong enough to hold you up, you can't do push-ups.
Or your shoulder stabilizers may be too weak. This is a very common problem, even in people who regularly exercise but only use the machines found in health clubs or a big home gym. You have lots of little muscles around your shoulder that help stabilize that joint. If they're weak, you won't be able to hold yourself in a push-up position, let alone lower your body and press it back up.
But do you really need to do push-ups? Are they all that valuable outside of gym class from middle school?
Absolutely! Push-ups are, by far, the most valuable upper body exercise around. They work way too much muscle to be excluded and help strengthen virtually every muscle in your upper body, including your abs and low back - muscles that everybody wants worked.
But how do you get to a point where you can do push-ups if you're having trouble doing 1, or if you can only do a few?
Well, if you're someone who's too heavy - lose weight. Easy answer, huh?
Seriously though, you can substitute an exercise that I love to use called a "Standing Resistance Tube Chest Press". You just need some resistance tubing and a place to anchor it, like a door.
Anchor the tube and stand facing away from the tubes with your hands at your sides at chest height. You then press your arms straight out in front of you so you are essentially doing a push-up in the standing position. It's very important to keep your abs braced and tight throughout the movement. If you don't, you'll wobble all over the place like a flower in the wind.
Once you've mastered that movement, and are doing it perfectly, give the push-ups a try again. If at that point you can do at least 5 push-ups, you're good to go.
Now that you can do a few push-ups, but can't do the recommended number a workout calls for, you just need to tweak a few things.
Let's say you can do 5 push-ups and the workout calls for 3 sets of 10.
I want you to perform 3 sets of 4 push-ups. By only doing 4, rather than your maximum of 5, you ensure you won't completely tire yourself out, yet in total you'll do 12 push-ups, which is pretty good progress in my book.
Then each week, try and do more push-ups than the last. Pretty soon you'll be a push-up master and will be able to move on and do more difficult versions.
If you can do regular push-ups and want to step it up a notch and do some more difficult ones, check out these 2 videos I made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CuvTYGxazc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsF3uyWBZNw
Have a good day!
Ed
P.S. - I love push-ups, and for good reason. They are an excellent upper body exercise and strengthen your chest, shoulders, triceps (back of your arms), upper back, abs, low back and glutes (butt). They are a fantastic fat burning move and they're one exercise that you can perform endless variations of. If you want to learn how to integrate push-ups into your fat burning workout, check out my Fat Loss To Go program now at www.fatlosstogo.com
Question: "What if I can't do push-ups?" Or. "What if I can only do 5 push-ups but your workout calls for 10?"
A: Surprisingly this is a pretty common problem. Many people are either too heavy or too weak to perform a single push-up. Or if they can do push-ups they can't do very many at one time. (FYI: You can substitute virtually any exercise for push-ups like squats, planks, lunges, etc. that people have trouble doing)
That's not a good problem to have, but it's not the end of the world if you take action.
There are a few reasons you may not be able to do any push-ups (or very few).
The obvious ones are that you're too heavy or too weak. That's easy.
However, there are some people who are relatively strong and not too heavy who still can't do push-ups. They may be able to do a decent amount of weight in exercises like the dumbbell chest press or machine chest press, but push-ups are just too darn hard.
These people may be weak in their core. I say that because if your low back, abs and all the little, deep stabilizer muscles aren't strong enough to hold you up, you can't do push-ups.
Or your shoulder stabilizers may be too weak. This is a very common problem, even in people who regularly exercise but only use the machines found in health clubs or a big home gym. You have lots of little muscles around your shoulder that help stabilize that joint. If they're weak, you won't be able to hold yourself in a push-up position, let alone lower your body and press it back up.
But do you really need to do push-ups? Are they all that valuable outside of gym class from middle school?
Absolutely! Push-ups are, by far, the most valuable upper body exercise around. They work way too much muscle to be excluded and help strengthen virtually every muscle in your upper body, including your abs and low back - muscles that everybody wants worked.
But how do you get to a point where you can do push-ups if you're having trouble doing 1, or if you can only do a few?
Well, if you're someone who's too heavy - lose weight. Easy answer, huh?
Seriously though, you can substitute an exercise that I love to use called a "Standing Resistance Tube Chest Press". You just need some resistance tubing and a place to anchor it, like a door.
Anchor the tube and stand facing away from the tubes with your hands at your sides at chest height. You then press your arms straight out in front of you so you are essentially doing a push-up in the standing position. It's very important to keep your abs braced and tight throughout the movement. If you don't, you'll wobble all over the place like a flower in the wind.
Once you've mastered that movement, and are doing it perfectly, give the push-ups a try again. If at that point you can do at least 5 push-ups, you're good to go.
Now that you can do a few push-ups, but can't do the recommended number a workout calls for, you just need to tweak a few things.
Let's say you can do 5 push-ups and the workout calls for 3 sets of 10.
I want you to perform 3 sets of 4 push-ups. By only doing 4, rather than your maximum of 5, you ensure you won't completely tire yourself out, yet in total you'll do 12 push-ups, which is pretty good progress in my book.
Then each week, try and do more push-ups than the last. Pretty soon you'll be a push-up master and will be able to move on and do more difficult versions.
If you can do regular push-ups and want to step it up a notch and do some more difficult ones, check out these 2 videos I made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CuvTYGxazc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsF3uyWBZNw
Have a good day!
Ed
P.S. - I love push-ups, and for good reason. They are an excellent upper body exercise and strengthen your chest, shoulders, triceps (back of your arms), upper back, abs, low back and glutes (butt). They are a fantastic fat burning move and they're one exercise that you can perform endless variations of. If you want to learn how to integrate push-ups into your fat burning workout, check out my Fat Loss To Go program now at www.fatlosstogo.com
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