The two started training more than 50 years ago and they’re still going strong.
Don’t RE-live your glory days – LIVE your glory days, every day. There are always new challenges, new weights to lift, new mountains to climb. Stay hungry. Like me and Franco. He was my favorite training partner 4 decades ago and he is my favorite training partner today.
A short video tutorial on how to do the perfect Push Up.
In the video above, I tell you how to do push ups with proper form and how to build up to doing them on the floor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it bad to flare the elbows out?
If the elbows are out (i.e., abducted 90-degrees from your body) it puts unnecessary strain on the elbow tendons (a valgus strain) and reduces the amount of subacromial space in the shoulder joint which can lead to impingement.
But that’s not all, it’s simply not as efficient of a position to generate strength from and doesn’t carry over to the more difficult pushing progressions. For example, if you’re ever going to do crow pose or handstand push ups or dips, you’re going to need to keep the elbows from flaring out, so you might as well be doing pushups in a way that transfers better to those exercises.
Why do I have to keep the hips tucked?
You will notice that I emphasize posterior pelvic tilt, which is the same as the hollow body position, if you’re familiar with that term. If you arch your lower back in plank or the push up, it will put a lot of pressure on your lower back and hurt it. I talk about the importance of this positioning in my comprehensive handstand tutorial.
Want to be able to do more than one pull-up. Follow this routine and you’ll be doing multiple sets of ten pull-ups in no-time flat.
Pull-ups are a great exercise for building upper body strength, but they’re also really hard to do if you’re not already used to doing them. If you’re not able to do more than one pull-up already, this video will show you how.
The video, from The Art of Manliness, gives you an easy routine to follow. If you can’t pull off a single full pull-up, the video suggests starting from the raised position and slowly lowering yourself, in a “reverse pull-up” motion. Once you’ve managed to work your way up to a single pull-up, the video suggests the following routine over time to increase your reps:
- Week 1: Twice a week, do 12 sets of 1 pull-up with a 45 second break in between each set.
- Week 2: Twice a week, do 6 sets of 2 pull-ups with a 45 second break between each set.
- Week 3: Twice a week, do 4 sets of 4 pull-ups with a 45 second break between each set.
- Week 4: Twice a week, do 3 sets of 6 pull-ups with a 45 second break between each set.
- Week 5: Twice a week, do 5 sets of 10 pull-ups with a 45 second break between each set.
If you feel like you can’t handle the pull-ups at any point during this regiment, dial it back and start from an easier step. Over time this should help you build your upper body strength and make it easier to do more pull-ups.
A video has been released by the Kremlin that shows Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev lifting weights and using various other exercise equipment at Putin’s Black Sea residence of Bocharov Ruchei, near Sochi. After their workout, the two are then shown grilling meat and drinking black tea together.
If the video is meant to make Putin look strong, it failed. In it, he looks old and his exercise form is terrible.
Every fitness guy knows the laws of the gym. Don’t curl in the squat rack, never skip leg day, and ALWAYS focus on form. That last bit is especially important if you’re going to share a workout video with others (for showoff purposes). If you commit a fitness felony, you suffer the consequences: enter Vladimir Putin. The president of Russia took a break from posting questionable shirtless selfies to give us a glimpse of how he and his prime minister Dmitry Medvedev build their political pecs.
M&F Deputy Editor Matt Tuthill had some scathing critiques, saying Putin is “Russian” (sorry, had to do it) his cable work.
“His cable crossover form is crap,” Tuthill says. “[That’s] weird because it’s such an easy exercise. His reps are fast and bouncy. That exercise is all about getting a good contraction, and it doesn’t look like he’s getting any. Meanwhile, the prime minister [Medvedev] is doing some legit pullups. It’s telling that we only see Putin doing lat pulldowns. Whenever two guys are working back and it’s time for pullups, the weaker guy always opts for pulldowns.”
We’re not just casting stones here, M&F is all about correcting these problems. Here’s how that move SHOULD look. Unfortunately, we don’t have a fix for Putin’s very non-Putin use of workout gloves.
Physical exercise is good for you. We know that we should do it daily, but our bodies don’t want us to do too much, so here’s a program of strenuous activities that do not require physical exercise.
01) Beating around the bush
02) Jumping to conclusions
03) Climbing the walls
04) Swallowing your pride
05) Passing the buck
06) Throwing your weight around
07) Dragging your heels
08) Pushing your luck
09) Making mountains out of mole hills
10) Hitting the nail on the head
11) Wading through paperwork
12) Bending over backwards
13) Jumping on the bandwagon
14) Balancing the books
15) Running around in circles
16) Eating crow
17) Tooting your own horn
18) Climbing the ladder of success
19) Pulling out all the stops
20) Adding fuel to the fire
21) Opening a can of worms
22) Putting your foot in your mouth
23) Starting the ball rolling
24) Going over the edge
25) Picking up the pieces
Whew! That’s a workout! Now sit down and
26) Exercise caution.
