Doing the Perfect Pushup

If you've ever tried working out your chest, I bet you've done push-ups. Or, if you're an athlete, I bet you've done pushups during conditioning and practice. They are definitely one of the most widely used exercises, but they are totally underestimated. If you take your time to learn how to do push-ups correctly, it will make all the difference in your chest muscles. I'll go over some of the most important components of the "perfect pushup". 

 

The first thing to remember while doing pushups, is that form is EVERYTHING. If you have good form throughout the entire push-up, it will isolate your chest muscles much better and you'll get superb results. When you are doing a pushup, you need to have your arms shoulder-width apart, a straight back, tightended buttocks, and straight legs, with your toes holding up your legs. As you are moving up and down during the motion of the pushup, you must keep your back straight, DO NOT, let it dip and arch, which is the natural tendency because it makes the pushup easier. I see people "cheating" like this all the time when doing pushups, and they really are only cheating themselves outta stronger, better-looking chest muscles. 

Even though it makes it harder, keep everything straight as I mentioned as you SLOWLY drop down and push yourself back up with your chest muscles and tricep muscles. If you're doing it right, you'll feel a strong burning sensation in both muscle groups. Don't worry about that feeling and push through it, it is good for you; it's what you want to feel! Squeeze every once of burning sensation as you can, pinch your pectoral muscles (chest muscles) together at the climax of your push up. This reall works the pec muscles hard and that is what you're aiming for, because the more you tear them down, the bigger they'll build back up! 

 Keep going until you cannot lift yourself off the floor anymore. After that, rest for a little bit, maybe like 10 seconds, and then get yourself to the upper position. Now, ever so slowly, let yourself drop down to the floor again. Fight the drop the whole way down, keep your muscles as taut as possible. 

Your chest muscles are exhausted, so you will inevitably fall, but if you fight against it the whole way you will experience intense burning and stretching in your pecs. Don't worrry, that is what you want! Once you're flat on the floor again, simply lay there and rest. Now, only 2 more sets and you're done! If you do 3 sets a couple times a week, you'll notice vast gains within 2-3 weeks, I guarantee it! 

Damian@FitnHealthy

20-Minute Calorie-Burning HIIT Workout

With the holiday season in full swing and the hustle to get end-of-the-year projects complete, it’s easy to stray from our regular exercise habits. Who has time for exercise when we are shopping for presents, cooking for family, running errands, traveling and attending parties? You. You have time for exercise. If your regular routine of going to the gym is getting trumped by this busy time of the year, try a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout that offers both fitness and calorie-burning benefits. Plus, you’ll work up a good stress-reducing sweat in a short amount of time.
High-intensity interval training features alternating bouts of all-out high-intensity exercise effort and short rest periods for a specific number of sets. These short, intense bursts of activity give you an incredible aerobic, anaerobic, strength and power workout all rolled into one. During a HIIT workout, your body metabolizes fat for fuel and after your workout your body will tap into fat stores for the energy. This makes HIIT one of the best ways to maximize caloric burn in a short amount of time. All you need is 15 to 30 minutes to reap all of these benefits of a HIIT workout.
No fitness equipment necessary for this 20-minute HIIT workout, but make sure you have water close by and a timer to keep track of the work/rest exercise intervals.
This workout includes two sets of three exercises repeated four times in row. Each exercise in the set is performed for 20 seconds followed by a one-minute rest. When set #1 is complete, move on to set #2.

High Knee Running: Run in place, bringing your knees up toward your chest and pumping the arms as quickly as you can.

Diagonal Jump-ups: Begin in lunge position, with your right foot forward and your body turned toward the upper-right-hand corner. Push through both feet, jump up and land in a lunge position with the left foot forward and your torso facing the upper-left-hand corner.

Burpees: Squat and place both hands down on the floor. Jump or walk back to high-plank position and perform one push up. Jump or walk your feet back to the squat position and immediately jump up with arms overhead.



Ankle Touches: Run in place, turning your knees slightly outward, bringing the inside of the leg up toward the chest and reaching your hands to touch the inside of your ankles.

Squat Jumps: Lower down into a squat, swinging your arms back behind you. Immediately jump up, swinging your arms up toward the ceiling.

Push-up + Jump In/Out: Begin in quadruped position, with your hips over the knees and shoulders over the hands. Curl up onto the toes and lift the knees slightly off the floor. Jump or walk the legs back into high plank and perform one push up. Jump or walk the legs back into the elevated quadruped position.



Source : Stephanie Thielen Fitness, LLC./ Ace Fitness