February Challenge!! There are many organizations with the same goal, 100 push ups a day for the month of February. This is a great way to improve upper body strength. In order to improve your push-ups make sure you scale them accordingly. Range of motion (chest and thighs on the ground at the bottom) is paramount. We can start with doing negatives, slowly controlling the down, from the knees. Make sure you keep the elbows in tight just like a bench press.
Last week I talked about "greasing the groove" practicing a skill in small increments to improve skill. This is a perfect example. Get your pushups in whichever order works best for you. Maybe 10 sets of 10 throughout the day. As you get better, start doing fewer sets of higher reps. I guarantee that your pushups will be better by the end of the month.
We have always been told that calories matter. The old "calories in versus calories out" is the standard mantra of any weight loss coach. We count calories, we learn to read labels and search for low calorie foods. Unfortunately most people, statistically, this does not work. The question is why?
Well, because it's not that simple. Calories are important, but not nearly as important as people think. Calories are a scientific measurement of how much energy something has when it is burned inside a bomb calorimeter. This is a very simple, reductionist way of looking at things. It's clean, simple, and makes sense, so we follow it as gospel.
Unfortunately the human body is a little bit more complex than a scientific device that measures heat generated by a piece of burning food. The more we learn about how our bodies work the more we understand the importance of hormones and the gut biome.
Instead of just looking at calories, start looking at the impact the food has on your hormones. A simple example of why this would matter is as follows. 2 people eat each 2000 calories per day. Person A eats all of those calories from twinkies, person B eats all those calories from steak and broccoli. They have both consumed the same amount of calories but I can guarantee the foods effects on hormones, thus the mental clarity, insulin, and digestion is going to vary greatly.
Generally if something has a label on it advertising "Low Calorie" it probably does have low calories, but also probably is not the best choice of food. They are marketing towards you, real healthy food doesn't need a marketing department.
Monday
A) Romanian Deadlifts
3 Sets
10-12 Reps (3-4 Seconds Lowering the bar)
Rest :90 - 2 mins between sets.
Use moderate weight and focus on control, especially during the eccentric phase.
Keep the knees slightly bent, the back flat, and focus on feeling the stretch in the hamstrings at the bottom.
B) 5 rds for time
30/24 Cal row
20 KB Swings (Green/Yellow)
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday