Workout Wednesdays

While working out with weights is a tried and true way of achieving bigger gains, we typically have used the body weight exercises as a way to maintain or tone rather than the core of the workout. This is actually for good reason as the bodyweight exercises only give you as much push as your body has weight and is very easy to become accustomed to. However, in the past few years, a back to basics workout movement has started gaining steam and I wanted to put my two cents in on exactly what to consider when deciding to try it.

The back to basics workout is exactly how it sounds. Instead of using weights or resistance provided by a machine or bands, you use the body you currently have and try to incorporate both cardio and strength exercises into one complete workout. This also coincides with the HIIT workout we mentioned a few weeks back that is high intensity and helps your body with its irregular intervals. In fact, if we look at one of the common circuits you can find online, you’ll be surprised how similar to HIIT these workouts actually are.

Basic Circuit Example

1) Quick Feet

2) Burpees

3) Jumping Jacks

4) Bear Crawls

5) Prisoner Squats

6) Plank Jacks

7) Mountain Climbers

8) Push Ups

This constitutes one circuit and once you complete one, you’re done! For a higher burn, it’s recommended to do this circuit up to three times in a row which isn’t too bad. One of the primary sites I found that recommended this exercise actually said to do each one of these for a minute each, which if you’ve ever tried any of these for a full minute, is a kind of harrowing proposal. Not to say that it isn’t doable, but as a beginner, I would recommend you to do them for at least 30 to 40 seconds each with a 10 – 20-second rest in between. The course of the circuit itself will tire you out to the point that when you hit pushups, you may not actually get even a few in during that 30 seconds due to fatigue. We want to work out, not pass out.

However, the interruption in movement does remind me a lot of the HIIT philosophy of muscle confusion and quick sprints – long reps. Done correctly, this kind of circuit is perfect for one of your off days to keep your cardio and body toned until the next heavy strength or cardio day. I would not, however, recommend it as a complete replacement.

While the back to basics workout is relatively inexpensive and you can do it on your own, after just a few weeks of doing this exercise circuit three times a week, your body will get used to it. Our bodies are flexible and adaptable machines that can adjust and change given the stress put upon it. However, with a body weight exercise, there comes a point where it just becomes ineffective. If you’ve ever known someone who did pushups daily, after a while, they begin to have to set aside a whole hour of time to do their pushups because anything less would do absolutely nothing for their progression. While this is to the extreme, the same goes for every other body weight and cardio based exercise not requiring weights or resistance.

Once you hit that level of comfort with body weight where you stop perspiring, you feel like you could easily do it for another ten minutes, and your heart rate no longer climbs, the exercise just became ineffective for growth. There is nothing wrong with that as a maintaining exercise or a source of conditioning but to really continue to lose weight and build muscle, you have to push your body forward by pushing it with higher weights and requirements that it has to then struggle to adjust to and will lead to bigger gains in all departments. In fact, this is exactly the reason you should hire a personal trainer to keep you moving forward.

That’s my two cents on this back to basics workout and for those who have tried it and love it, that’s great! This is just my opinion on what I believe works and doesn’t work as effectively for what most people are looking for in a workout. Until next time, think healthy, be healthy!

Pushups are the go to body weight exercise and for good reason. This exercise can increase strength as well as definition in the biceps, triceps, and shoulder regions. But what if I told you that you can actually improve this exercise further to include your abs, chest, or even your lats without killing them in the process? Here’s some tips to do all that and more to really improve your pushup game.

1. Tighten the stomach

While pushups are primarily for upper body improvement, tightening the stomach during a set of reps can actually help improve core strength. What tightening the stomach does to improve your pushups goes beyond just adding a planking type of addition but also helps from rounding your spine which reduces injury of trying to force your back to stay in place. Pretty great right?

2. Spread those fingers

A lot of people will do pushups close handed or where their fingers are all together pointing in the same direction. If you’ve ever seen those guys who do jumping pushups or anything similar, a good majority are using an open, spread hand. This adds more tension to the workout while making it a bit easier to transfer into diamond style after a while. It’s also great because it works your lats and adds yet another muscle group to the already great workout.

3. Push in and away

To improve your pushup further, try pushing inwards. If you’re utilizing the wide grip from tip four, then focus on pushing those thumbs towards each other each time you go down. This will engage the chest even further than it already has by giving the feeling of a chest press each time you perform a rep. In addition, most people consider pushups as lifting yourself off of the ground but if you try to instead, push the ground away from you, you’ll notice a change in the exercise that affects the whole body!

With these three steps in mind, you can begin to try different more difficult variations like diamond style, burpees, or even increase the amount of time per each rep for maximum muscle penetration. Pushups are wonderful and as long as you do them right, can sometimes replace a gym visit if you don’t have an hour to spend for the day.

Until next time, think healthy, be healthy!

That’s right, as much as you probably think that the activity you do daily can’t be done wrong, when it comes to exercise, there is actually a fine line between maintaining a proper breathing routine and breathing too little or too much. On our first Workout Wednesday, we’re going to take a look at some different ways improper breathing can make workouts less effective and how to avoid creating a bad habit of it.

Weighted Workouts

We’ve all been there. Sitting under a weight that’s just a little too much for us at the current time either due to fatigue or lack of proper preparation. As we push out we hold our breath in hopes that it will magically increase our strength like a mommy lifting a bus to save their child. However, when your life isn’t in danger, and honestly any time you lift a weight, this is absolutely wrong.

Workouts require many things to be effective but the most important, especially when using weights or running, are calories, water, and oxygen. Your muscles need all of these to operate effectively and when not utilized correctly, can often hurt them instead. Imagine the upper body as a balloon and as you push your oxygen in and out, it actually puffs you up and releases it naturally. Now imagine you’re putting lots of air into the balloon at once and holding it there while applying pressure on it. It’ll pop! The same thing goes with your body as when you put pressure on your arms and then on your lungs by trying to hold in air like Superman, both will give out eventually. Improper breathing can often lead to blood vessel strains, hernias, and even high blood pressure. That’s the opposite of what we want!

So how do you optimize breathing so you don’t pop under the pressure? As military.com states in a very entertaining article on the subject “ALWAYS exhale on exertion.” To put it simply, at the actual lifting part, breathe out and when resetting to the neutral position, breathe in. This may seem a little difficult if you’re used to breathing improperly but once learned, will greatly benefit your workouts. Here’s a few tips to help during weighted workouts that can also be applied to many others.

1. During the workout, try slowing down your reps to match your breathing. As you exhale out, reach the end of the exertion and try to time it so you hit the end of your breath at the same point. As you inhale, try to return back to the resting position right as it ends. This not only increases the length of the exercise (which makes for better workouts) but also increases the attention given to breathing correctly.
2. Try to keep track of the 3:2 rule. This is where you breaths out for three seconds, then breathe in for two seconds. This will eventually make your reps line up with the breathing and you’ll be surprised with the results!
3. Become a mouth breather! As long as you have some gum on hand, try breathing through your mouth during workouts. It’s far more audible than your nose and can typically help you keep track of whether or not you’ve breathed in or out recently.

Ab Workouts

Ab Workouts follow the same basic principle as weighted workouts however there is something more that we’re looking to focus on to make these effective. You still want to breathe out when doing the crunch but also want to make sure that you suck in your stomach which may sound unnatural but, it’s necessary. The reasoning is when we breathe out naturally, especially if you’ve been in theater, we tend to breathe out by letting our stomachs bulge a bit. It’s a way of relaxing all the muscles in our body BUT we’re not trying to do that during a crunch! So when we crunch, we want to focus on either keeping the muscles not only tightened but resistant to the natural push of our bodies wanting to relax during an exhale. While a bit more advanced of a step, this helps avoid the dreaded “bloated ab” look. While this doesn’t apply to everyone, often the reason even after dieting, daily workouts, and 30 minutes of abs is from not sucking in while breathing out.

The only major tip I can give on this one would be to focus on your workout and make sure that you feel a pull in the proper muscle groups that these are meant to focus on. If you get up from an ab workout and don’t have a hit, you probably didn’t perform the workout right and it’s time to reconsider how you’re approaching them. Instead, slow down the reps within reason and see if you can’t feel your abs contracting the way you would like them to and optimize your ab workout.

In closing, when it comes to weighted, cardio, Or ab focused workouts, proper breathing is essential to truly bring out the best you. While taking shortcuts may seem easier, putting in the effort with these steps will eventually give you exactly what you’re going for with higher weight loss, less muscle strain, and even more muscle tone in the end.

That’s all for today and until next time, think healthy, be healthy!