How Pushups Can Burn Fat
When people think about burning fat or losing weight
most automatically think jogging, walking, biking,
treadmills the regular gym staples are the only way
and the best way.
The best way to burn fat and keep it off is a combination
of your eating habits and exercises that use many muscles
at one time, the bigger and more muscles you bring in to play
the more muscle you build, and more fat you will burn faster
and for longer periods of time; and the body will continue
to burn fat faster and longer than the more popular gym
exercises everyone else use’s.
The great thing about using your bodyweight as a workout
machine is you will be able to use all the muscles you
need to burn fat and build muscle at a rapid pace.
One exercise that is and has always been a serious exercise,
for building muscle and burning fat; as well as building a good
level of conditioning is the basic pushup.
The basic pushup is a full body workout; it uses a lot of
big and small muscles as well as strengthening the
core and upper and lower back. Because the pushup
utilizes so many muscles at one time your body will
be stimulated to build muscle and burn fat very fast
for great results.
The faster you do the pushups will create a
cardiovascular workout that will have you breathing
heavy in a very short time. The pushup will activate
the anaerobic system. Training the anaerobic
system (meaning without oxygen) will give you
a great workout in a short period of time.
Pushups are a forgotten exercise and just recently
has started to make a comeback, the fittest men the
the world do hundreds and even thousands of pushups
on a daily basis.
Look for a man that can do 100 pushups and you will
find a pretty fit man, a man that can do 100 pushups
is actually pretty rare, 100 pushups is not something
you just decide to do at the drop of a hat, because
unless you are trained or have trained to 100 pushups
you will probably fail.
You can create a simple effective workout just using
pushups and sprints and this alone will put your level
of fitness at a different level.
Try doing your pushups in short explosive sets of about
10 to 20 at a time rest for 10 to 15 seconds repeat for
10 sets and watch how your body will respond to a simple
exercise like the pushup.
Toughness Builds Winners
^ True story! Nothing could be more truthful than the power of the pushup. An exercise or movement doesn’t survive thousands of years without (literally) carrying it’s own weight. Like any great product, it needs no advertisements and couldn’t care less if you believe in it’s ability – It survives on it’s own.
-This isn’t towards you Wildman because I’m positive you’re aware of proper alignment/posture or you wouldn’t have done 4,300 in one day and be laid out in pain –
BUT, I’m so surprised that so many ‘experts’ (just search on youtube pushup vids or , heaven forbid, watch some military boot camp vids : / and you’ll know what I’m talkin’ about) who show people how to perform pushups do them so WRONGLY that it’s no wonder their clients hate them because they cause nothing but joint pain after a few days of ‘training’.
!Form is Everything! and everyone seems to think it’s common sense to know how to perform a proper pushup but, I’m sorry, it isn’t so anymore. I’m sure back in the day when physical labor was mandatory to survive one could get away w/ some sloppy form because our bodies were strong enough to compensate but if you’re weak to begin with – The pushup will put a hurting on you – not in a good way either.
If you watch closely to Johnny’s vids – you should just post a true tutorial johnny because it’s hard to find one – you’ll notice how perfect his form is and how effortlessly he is able to ‘lock’ in the position and get down to business without thinking about form. This ‘locking’ in all the necessary muscles -without effort on your part (muscle memory) is where you’ll see real gains in ability and concentration to the task at hand ( # goal of reps) and where all should start.
*Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong – I’m not claiming to be an expert*
The hands should grip the ground and externally rotate the shoulders so the pit of your elbow is toward your feet, keeping those elbows close to the body at all times. This puts all the pressure on the heel of your hand and takes much strain off the wrist and also activates the lats as well as the Serratus anterior <– get to this in a sec — so you're essentially pushing w/ your triceps/armpit.
Most people complain of anterior (front) shoulder pain after these pressing movements due to both elbows flailing out (putting pressure on the anterior shoulder instead of the tricep) , hunching their shoulders forward, sagging back, and forgetting completely about the most important bone in the shoulder region — The Scapula. In fact, you hear so much about the Rotator Cuff that you'd never even know the scapula played a part half the time. I honestly believe most anterior shoulder pain is a symptom due to negligence of the serratus anterior, the muscle that keeps you from winging the scapula out and impinging (clicking or clunking sounds usually mean somethin's getting pinched in the shoulder) the Cuff between the clavicle, humerus, coracoid process. So for your healths sake – and for the joy of doing a millenia old exercise without pain, anguish, despair….Keep your back straight, Core tight (including your ass), hands gripped, externally rotate those elbowpits towards your feet (keep em close to the body) and keep that scapula gliding around the ribs before you fly right into the doctors office. It's common for the SA to be weak so utilize a pushup-plus (youtube it) if you're having trouble. Use a mirror, ask a friend, and constantly practice 'feeling perfect form' so it gets ingrained in your nervous system for good. Pushups are tough and fun but they're not meant to injure you – If the pushup injures you, 99% of the time it's your fault. Bad form causes injuries, not pushups.
* meant to say – “not laid out in pain” – the bad kind. My apologies.
Great article, and good comment. Push ups for itself are a complete workout, as suggested. I’m 51 years old in good form, and in my life did lots of -specially- bodyweight excercises. In my opinion and experience, if a person does push ups and some stretching after (to bring nervous memory in other range of motios) don’t need neither a bar, or a complex routine with more work for legs, bíceps, neither pull ups or chin ups. I performed pushups everydays for my whole life, only one excercise, one set per day and few times had imbalances (for improper form) or nervous fatigue, and the progress was constant.
When younger I tryed to do as most as I can, but after doing easily more than 60, I start doing handstands till people laugh at me before the internet era. But ever what I did, instead of increasing repetitions over 40 was to do a more challenging variation of the push up.
I found one set from 20 to 30 a day increase muscle mass the most, and one set of 40 a day reduces body weight more than doing 50 to 100. Probably is because below 50 the anaerobic effort is more and over 50 the aerobic is more used bu the body as a system. At 38 y.o. I lost more than ten pounds in two weeks, going to my normal weight.
I discovered what Dr.Broomstick said about the escapula in the last months, after doing planche push ups for several years and affecting my spine, not badly but affected. When I start using this concept of proacting the shoulders I found an increase in performance in all aspects and a correct body posture for the rest of the day, without any pain and felt relief in an already chronic contracture. So I think he did a great point.
Cheers, and sorry for my lack of vocabylary to express several concepts, english is not my mother tongue and for sure is evident.