A simple way to increase number of push ups

Here, I will cover a simple way you can use to increase your number of push ups. This works for pull ups, dips, squats and pretty much any other exercise you can think of. This can be split up into 4 steps.

Step 1 - find your max: Do as many push ups as you can with good form, this is your max

Step 2: Multiply your max by 4, then for the next 10 days, do a total of 4 times your max throughout each day, in multiple sets. Don't go anywhere near failure, stay at least 2-3 reps away from your max per set.

Step 3: Rest 3 days, do not do any push ups during this time, eat well, sleep loads and drink a lot of water.

Step 4: test your new max, and start from step 2 again.

Example:

Step 1: I test my max and can do 20 push ups

Step 2: 20 x 4 = 80. So throughout the day, I will do 80 total push ups. One day I might do 8 sets of 10, the next 16 sets of 5 etc. Stay creative, and listen to your body, if you are feeling weak, do more total sets and less reps per set.

Step 3: I take 3 days rest, eat well, drink milk and play Tekken.

Step 4:  I re-test my max and get 30 push ups, and start from step 2.

This is perfect for beginners, but will work for any level of strength. Remember, you have the whole day to complete the reps, don't be intimidated by the total number of reps, you can just do a set every hour, or 10 minutes, be creative and clever with it and you will find it a lot easier than it seems.

Hope this helps
Enjoy the gains.
Alex  

Around the world - more interesting than cardio

Around the worlds are a training method developed by bar hitters in New York. The original idea consisted of push ups, pull ups and dips, 10 reps per exercise with up to and beyond 40 sets.

Sounds a lot like metabolic conditioning. So if we take this idea and put our own exercises in, but making sure that we hit the whole body, you have a work out that will make you stronger, improve GPP and burn a hell of a lot of calories depending on the exercises and the volume that you do it.

For example, today I did a circuit of one arm chins (2 reps), pistol squats(3-5 reps) and press to handstands (1 rep) for 6 rounds, and i got an effective work out in 20 minutes, and it hit my conditioning as well, jsut doing each exercise one after the other with as little rest as possible.

You can pick any 3 exercises: calisthenics, barbell work, strongman, even some isolation exercises if you want to bring up a lagging body part.

If you are training strength movements, as I am, and still want to train like this, I would recommend adding in a 'spacer exercise' or 2 to help you rest between sets, for example, I was training around the worlds yesterday, with handstand presses (1 rep) and one arm chins (2 reps). I added in a set of bulgarian split squats to help me rest more between sets. A 'spacer exercise' should be relatively easy and can be done for high reps, push ups or skipping are also good exercises



I hope this helps if you are stuck for a workout, remember, be creative, and enjoy the time away from the world, this work out can also really help clear your head.

Enjoy the gains
Alex

A cheap way to get a better grip on the bar

Ever noticed that when you into your pull up work out, the grip starts to get tired, your hands start to sweat, and suddenly its not pull ups that your failing on, but just holding onto the bar?
don’t get me wrong I believe that developing grip strength is very important when doing exercises like pull ups, i could list the benefits for days (I may do at some point soon :L) but if you want to test your gripping strength, something like a thick bar is better than wetting up your hands before every set.
I am currently training one arm pull ups (cheeky picture of me below), so every issue that you get with regular pull ups is doubled when you switched to one arms. And I do not want to be having to deal with slipping off the bar half way through my set. You can always use chalk But an impromptu chinning session when you are out and have some spare time will leave you chalk-less and slippery, unless you want to carry your chalk around with you.

I was training a client one day, we were doing super sets with chin ups and farmers walks with fat gripz. Into the 3rd or 4th set, his hands started to slip on the pull ups, so we wrapped one of those Pilates bands around the bar and it worked perfectly.

These bands can be brought off Ebay for under £5, simply cut a couple of 3-5 inch sections off and wrap them around the bar when doing pull ups and enjoy the friction.
Enjoy the gains,
Alex