RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Elevated DB Reverse Lunge

Screw "Girl" Push Ups

I hate "girl" push ups. I don't care if they're called modified push ups. I still hate them. Not because just of the poor training effect they deliver, but also because placing the term "girl" in front of push ups implies that this is the only way girls or females should be doing them. Just because you're a female doesn't mean you have to be doing push ups from your knees. Yes, females do not have as much relative upper body strength as males, but there's no reason for this to prevent you from performing a real push up.

Just like any other exercise we can follow a progression to get you to your goal, which in this case would be a push up if you're not able to do one on your own. There's a couple of ways of doing this and neither one involves doing push ups from the knees.

The first way is working on the lowering phase of the push up, which would also be called the eccentric phase. Getting stronger in the eccentric phase is going to carry over to being stronger in the concentric or push phase. Rather than working from the floor up, you're going to work from the up position to the floor. All your going to do is slowly lower yourself to the floor, taking about 8-10 seconds to do so. That's one rep. Once you're able to do 3-5 of these add a couple more seconds on to the eccentric phase. Continue in this fashion. After a couple of weeks, test your ability to do a standard push up.

The other way to progress from not being able to do a push up also involves working from the top down. All you're going to do is find something that is about chest level to place your hands on and get into a push up position with your legs out straight. You could use a table, plyo box or Smith machine (one of the few things it's good for). Once you're able to do about 8-10 push ups from this height, you're going to place your hands a bit lower and aim for 8-10 push ups again. Continue in this fashion, placing your hands a bit lower each time your successful at the previous phase. Next thing you know your hands are on the floor and you're banging out push ups probably better than most guys in the gym.

Once your able to a standard push up, now the fun begins. You have endless push up variations to work up: feet elevated, single leg, t-push ups and band resisted push ups just to name a few. And may be some day we can eliminate "girl" push ups forever.

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Single Arm Overhead Kettlebell Walking Lunge

Another Nutrition Tip from Dr. John Berardi

Tip #19
How To Manage Your Macronutrients
by Dr. John Berardi

Are you more likely to be able to decipher ancient Greek texts than figure out how to construct a diet containing 30% protein, 50% carbohydrate, and 20% fat? Well then check out the following resources.

1- www.nal.usda.gov/fnic is the National Agriculture Library's Food and Nutrition Information Center. Here you can find basic information on dietary supplements, an advanced food composition database, information about the food guide, and a listing of interesting resources about special needs, food allergies, etc.

2- www.nutritiondata.com is a fantastic resource and although it uses the food database above, may actually offer a better presentation of the food composition data. It doesn't offer the other information, though.

3- www.fitday.com is another great food composition site that offers much more including online diet and fitness journals.

4- www.calorieking.com offers many of the same resources as fitday.com but has several excellent additional features such as an online 'university' (weekly education about the physiological and behavioral sides of nutrition). The extras cost money but are worth checking into.

SEE ALSO:
This tip is sponsored by Precision Nutrition - my pick for the best nutrition and supplement resource currently available. Containing system manuals, gourmet cookbook, digital audio/video library, online membership, and more, Precision Nutrition will teach you everything you need to know to get the body you want -- guaranteed.

Random Thoughts

• If I get one more 16 year old kid asking me about protein powders I'm going to freak out. I've got kids asking me what brands they should be using and when to use it knowing that these same kids probably don't eat breakfast, have a Slurpy and a bag of Doritos for lunch and some macaroni and cheese for dinner with a 32 oz. bottle of Gatorade. No protein powders are going to help these kids. Getting nutrition basics in place is going to help these kids. Protein powders are a supplement and a supplement is only going to work if the basic principles are in place.
• What is jogging? The only thing I know about jogging is that it totally screws you up. When some one says they're going to go for a jog, do they mean, "I'm going for a shuffle down the road using an incomplete motor pattern so that just about every joint in my body hurts." Sprint, run or walk, but please don't jog.
• A good number of people tend to think hamstring strains are the result of tight hamstrings. Actually, a bigger cause of tight hamstrings are the muscles on the other side of the body that oppose the hamstrings, the hip flexors. If your hip flexors tend to be extremely tight, they're going to pull your pelvis into a forward tilt. This forward tilt can inhibit the glutes which work with the hamstrings to extend the hip. If the glutes are inhibited now the hamstrings have to do more work than they want thereby increasing the likelihood of a hamstring strain. Don't get caught in looking at the pain site as the source of the pain. It's usually the result of some dysfunction from the opposing muscle groups or a dysfunction of the joints above or below.
• With all this talk of the swine flu, H1N1, flu shots and what ever other pandemic is going to wipe away every human being on this planet, I never really hear about ways to protect yourself outside of the flu shot. You could do yourself a favor or two by cutting back on grains and processed foods, getting some regular exercise in, supplementing with Omega 3's and trying to get yourself some regular sunlight in order to get a boost of Vitamin D.
• I bought into the hype. I bought the TRX because that's all I had been hearing about in any newsletter or strength article I happened to be reading. The TRX was everywhere. I felt left out. I had another suspension trainer, the Jungle Gym, but I felt like I was missing out on something not having the TRX. Truth be told, the TRX is not that much greater than the Jungle Gym. Yes, it has footstraps that give it a bit more diversity. But the footstraps do not justify a difference in $60 in price between the TRX and the Jungle Gym. Now I feel like one of these people who gets sucked into buying the latest belly flab ridder.
• A friend and colleague of mine, Dave Gleason, opened up one of the first Athletic Revolution franchises in the country. I went down to check the facility out a couple of weeks ago and it is definitely a top notch facility. If you happen to know any one on the South Shore who is looking to get their kids involved in some type of athletic preparation type of program, this is the place to go.
• I'll end with a totally random thought. I need to start working some Turkish Get Ups back into my routines. I hate doing them which means I should be doing them.
  
  
  
  
  

RichRuff Bootcamp

Bootcamp

When: Saturday mornings @8:30am starting November 21
Where: 738 Main Street, Waltham
Cost: $20/session

Call (617)835-0564 or send an email to rich@richruffing.com for more information.

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Lower Body Foam Roller Patterns

Here are a couple of self myofacial release exercises you can do with a foam roller pre-workout, prior to stretching, post-workout or as part of a recovery session.

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: TRX Push Up

Get your TRX here.