Welcome to the Part 2 of the Improvement Digest.

In this episode we are going to be going over exercises that cause people the biggest problems for ranking up to the next level of FitRanX and also the ones that can help you get the strongest and best body possible.

The exercises we will be talking about are the pushup and pull-up. In the subsequent issues we will cover the kettlebell clean & snatch, deadlifts (all variations) and squats.

For each exercise I will go over the basic performance, muscles used & in the order of major to minor and the techniques you should use to get stronger in said exercise.

The first exercise we will cover is the pull-up. One of our goals at Improvement Warrior Fitness/Athletic Revolution (IWF/AR) is to get everybody to be able to do a minimum of one body weight pull-up.

The basic performance: 1. Grip bar with overhand grip 2. Break the bar by turning your thumbs towards your face (this applies torque and gets your shoulders tight). 3. Hang from bar 4. Start pull-up by pulling with elbows to engage the back and lats 5. Pull as fast and hard as you can, even if you are going slow it doesn’t matter, pull as fast as you can. 6. Keep head looking forward and in-line with spine at all times—DO NOT jut chin forward to get to the bar. 7. Pull self as high as possible; don’t just stop at chin-to-bar, you want to attempt to pull your chest to the bar. 8. Pause if possible at top. 9. Lower self in same manner. 10. The entire time should be ‘breaking’ the bar. 11. Legs should be straight with feet in front (If in an assisted band pull-up then have one leg in front 12. Abs and butt should be squeezed as tight as possible 13. Meaty part of your hand should be wrapped around bar at all times (not fingers) 14. Exhale as you go up (out through mouth, inhale on way down (through the nose), you should hear your breath coming out on the exhale this helps to tighten the abs and helps you through any sticking points. 15. At all times you should be pulling your shoulders down and ‘into’ the socket. Never let your shoulders be pulled ‘up and out’ of the socket.

Muscles used: 1. Lats/back 2. Grip 3. Forearms 4. Biceps 5. Deltoids (shoulder) 6. Abs 7. Chest 8. Butt

Techniques: Please note that if your grip gives out before your back does then you will not be able to a body-weight pull-up or add more reps to your pull-up. 1. Hang and Hold- Minimum :60. If you cannot hold on to the bar without your grip/forearms giving out you can never do body weight pull-ups 2. Farmer’s walks, plate holds, hand grippers, other grip work. Other ways to strengthen your grip also will help. 3. Recovery: If you are sore avoid doing any heavy strength training for that area you are sore. Soreness indicates that the muscle was broken down and needs rest to recover in order to get stronger. There are active recovery techniques such as mobilizations, foam rolling, massage, and cold therapy that will speed the recovery process up. And then there is simply rest. 4. Mobilizations: Mobilizations that will help get your pull-up quicker are 1. Thoracic Extension variations 2. Upper back/Lat/Armpit smashing 3.1st Rib Mobilization 4. Angel of Death (shoulders/pec) 5. Shoulder Reset with band or kettlebell (helps to get shoulder back in socket)--- All of these can be googled or Youtubed or shown by your coach. 5. Heavy Rows- These will help to build the overall foundation of your back. These can be done with barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell, or bands. Reps should be between 6-15 and to failure for 2-4 sets each. 6. USA Pull-ups- This exercise is a pull-up on a suspension trainer and allows you to use your legs to support you up and down as well. Use your legs as much as you want but as little as possible as you should be implementing the pull-up technique to build that strength. 7. Iso-Hold Pullups- Isometric strength builds strength in a certain range of motion so wherever you hold it about another 10% in either direction is also getting strengthened. You simply pull yourself up to the a certain point, usually right at or above your sticking point and hold that as long as you can. Work up to 1:00. 8. Negative Pullups (Body weight or with bands): Get chin up above bar and fight it down as slow as possible. Work up to :30 or more for each rep. To make even harder at certain points on the way down stop and do an iso-hold for :3-:10. 9. Band assisted or partner assisted Pull-ups: Stick your knee in a band and do your pull-up as usual. The band takes weight off, however it gives more assistance when it is easiest (at bottom) and less as it gets tougher (towards the top). So it best to incorporate other techniques as well like the Iso-Hold, rest/pause and negative pull-ups. Also use lighter bands then used to and pull faster at bottom to get up higher to get more strength at top where you need it more. 10. Grease the groove- Main purpose of this is train the nervous system, tendons, and joints and never come close to failure. You never want to get to a burning sensation (lactic acid, the pump)—stop as soon as you feel it coming on or 1-2 reps before. Say your max is 5 reps with a big blue band, you will do 1-2 reps with the big green band and stop, rest at least 1:00 and can be 5:00 or up to an hour, then do it again. This is building up the nervous system, tendons, and ligament strength and hammering the form pattern. You can also do this at home. 11. Rest/pause- There are a couple ways to do these. #1 is a lot like the grease the groove but with not as much rest between: do 1-2 reps with a heavier weight or smaller band then used to, rest :20-30 repeat. #2 do your reps as normal and when failure occurs or is close to it stop rest :5-15 do one more rep, repeat….. 12. Drop sets- Do as many as you can with your heaviest weight, then immediately lower the weight or increase band size and do more, repeat until can’t do anymore. 13. Alternate your grip- Change from pull-up to chin-up. Alternating grip (one hand forward, one backwards). Narrow grip, wide grip. Each change of grip or hand placement changes the stimulus on certain muscles. The second exercise we will cover is the pushup.

The basic performance is: 1. Assume shoulder width hand stance 2. Kick feet back, your crown of your head should be as far away from your toes as possible, if on knees then it should be your knees. 3. Hands should be facing straight forward. 4. Screw your hands into the floor (apply torque), your hands/fingers will not move, your elbow pits will be driven forward doing this 5. Descend down until chest either touches the floor or is within fist distance of it. 6. At the very bottom the back of your forearms should be 100% vertical to the ceiling (this ensures that you are pushing the most with chest and keeping the pressure off the elbows, wrist and shoulders). 7. As you descend squeeze your shoulder blades together and concentrate on jutting your chest out. 8. If forearms are not vertical simply lie flat on the floor and reposition your hands until your forearms are vertical, then re-screw your hands in the floor. 9. Once you reach the bottom push out and reverse back to the top. 10. Throughout movement screw hands in floor, keep abs and butt tight, keep head in-line with spine (looking down towards the floor).

Muscles used: 1. Chest 2. Shoulders 3. Triceps 4. Forearms 5. Back/scapula 6. Rotator Cuff 7. Abs/Low back 8. Butt 9. Legs

Techniques: 1. Core training: The pushup involves being able to hold your body from head, neck, back, hips and legs all in line with each other for the duration of the exercises. So strong abs, obliques, and low back are key. You should be able to hold a front and side plank/bridge for at least 1:00. 2. Band Chest press: Good way to strengthen the pushup muscles without doing a pushup. Use a band like we use in class not one with handles attached. Take band with one end in each hand and bring both ends around your body. Band should be under your shoulder blades, elbows should be tight and forearms vertical just like pushup execution and press band forward and bring hands together squeezing the chest. 3. Wall Pushup: Same setup and technique for regular pushup just done on a wall. Most people get their hands way too high on this one so be sure to put your hands down, elbows tight to body and forearms as close to vertical. Big negative on this one is as face comes to wall head needs to jut back a little to get chest as close to wall. 4. Dumbbell or Kettlebell or Barbell Bench/Floor Press: These you can get very strong in as you simply just need to increase the weight. Remember you still want to get shoulders tight and apply torque by externally rotating your shoulders and get the forearms as vertical as you can. 5. Incline Pushup: This is a pushup done on an incline surface: a box, bench, chair, table, etc….. The key is to progressively lower the incline closer and closer to the floor. 6. Knee pushup: Pushups on your knees are fine to do as long as you don’t plan on staying there. When your on your knees you cannot squeeze your butt as effectively or your abs which effectively sets the pelvis and hips in proper alignment. Otherwise it is an excellent place to be especially when learning the tight elbows, forearms vertical and screwing the hands into the floor. It can be done with a band assist or none. 7. USA Chest Press: This is a chest press done on a suspension trainer. Much like the incline pushup but better. This allows a person keep lower the incline to make the exercise harder. The lower you are the harder and the higher you are the easier. A suspension trainer chest press can also be a harder variation then the regular pushup or even harder variants due to the amount of shoulder torque and stabilization required because of the unstable surface. 8. Negative Pushup: This can done assisted band style and/or on the knees as well. You simply line up in regular pushup stance and fight down as slow as possible. Work up to :30 or longer. The negative portion of the rep you are the strongest and it is also the negative portion which breaks down the actual muscle tissue and causes soreness. We want that breakdown, but then you have to remember to recover/repair before doing it again in order to get stronger. Once you get down to the very bottom with your chest on the floor, pushup into a Yoga Updog position and start again or rest. 9. Iso-Pushup Hold: Iso-holds is where you are the second strongest, the up part (or positive) of the rep is where you are weakest. Here you simply go down to your lowest point or slight above or below it and hold as long as you can. 10. Assisted band or partner pushup: Attaching the band around your waist is a good way to work up to full pushups. Unlike the assisted pull-up, here the band is actually assisting on the hardest part. Set a goal number of reps for each band strength and constantly be moving down towards that body weight pushup. If it is a partner assist they simply assist from the hips. 11. Decline Pushup: This is where your feet our elevated by a chair or stool. It’s much harder variant and it’s also harder to get in proper position with the hands, elbows and forearms, so be sure to take the time to set up. Usually set up in the bottom position is easier. 12. Weighted Pushups: This is where you add weight to your back, or wrap a band around your chest the same way that you do a band chest press. Getting stronger in these will allow much easier body weight pushups. 13. Power Pushups: These are things like clapping pushups, pushup hops, med ball pushups, plyometric pushups and so on. You should be able to do at least 30 body weight pushups before attempting these. 14. 1-Handed pushup: You can start working out like Rocky once you get to these! Yo Adrian! Although Sly’s form needed a little correcting 

You can also use the techniques mentioned in the pull-up like the mobilizations, rest/pause, grease the grove, drop sets, etc……

That’s it. If you have any questions about where you should be on these spectrums let your coach know.

Stay strong, Stay Positive, Be the Improvement Warrior!