The Fitness Adviser

One thing that I really think is important for people to understand when they get into fitness is that there’s no “right” way of working out. Once you understand the basics of which movement targets which muscle group, and that you need resistance to build muscle, the sky is the limit on putting together different exercises and even creating new exercises to build strength.

[The core of the body is the what keeps the body stabilized, similar to what a trunk does for a tree.]

That means that while beginners might need workout programs made out for them to get started, once you gain more knowledge about working out you shouldn’t be afraid to experiment with different techniques and exercises as long as you do it with safety in mind.

Even if you’re going to be away from your workout equipment with limited time this weekend (hopefully because you’re out having a nice weekend), you can still get in a quick body weight workout. Here are a few quick and easy body weight workouts you can do, interval training style, to quickly get in some exercise:

[With this picture, you can now be confident that you have the proper form when doing  "fence pull ups"!]

Beginner Body Weight 6 Minute Training:

Push Ups / Planks / Body Weight Squats

If you’re not able to do full push up and body weight squats yet, you can do kneeling push ups and squats without going all the way down. Anyway, here’s the workout:

Three Sets of (no breaks in between the 3 exercises, one minute in between each set):

5-40 Push Ups(depending on level)

15 second – 2 and a half minute plank (depending on level)

Like many people, I was never really into swimming growing up besides for leisure. Sure, I knew how to swim and took a few courses here and there in different summer camps. But in general, I never had a serious interest in it and by the time I hit high school age I almost completely stopped swimming (which is sort of funny considering I made time to sail).

[One of my dreams is to take a boat out to the ocean and just watch the most graceful and beautiful creatures to be found on the planet. I also think that anyone who ever wants to take a voyage out to the ocean is safer and better off if they're a solid swimmer as well.]

I’ve always enjoyed body weight exercises more than any other kind of exercise. Why? Because they’re fun, and I think real strength means having total mastery over your body weight, which is also why I have a lot of respect for gymnasts. Still, doing the same body weight exercises over and over for months or years can get tedious, which is why it’s important to incorporate new exercises to mix up your routine every once in awhile.

Which is what brings us to the Chinese Push Up, also known as “The Dive Bomber.”

[Monkeys are a great example of how much fun can be had when you have total control over your body weight. That being said, I would NOT suggest you try taunting tigers at home!]

How To Do Chinese Push Ups or “The Dive Bomber”

In my experience, there are three kinds of fitness people. The first person is the one who trains for health and enjoyment of life, the second person trains for competition, and the third person trains because they like challenging themselves physically. This post is for the second and third type of person, and is designed on giving you a few fitness training tips on how to challenge yourself and acquire that extra athletic edge. Here are the 3 tips:

[Extreme sports and activities often require extreme training to really succeed. While these exercises may be ridiculously hard, if you've gotten to the point that you can do them...you've gained that athletic edge.]

For Every Time You Jump Rope, Let The Rope Pass Under You 3 Times

There are a lot of guys and girls who can’t do one pull up (where your palms face outward), and when I was younger, I was no exception. But by using a few tricks, I was able to drastically increase my shoulder and upper back strength and go from zero to twenty seven pull ups. You can do the same by following these simple tricks:

Can’t Complete One Pull Up Yet? Use a Chair…Or a Buddy!

I used to look down upon the idea of using a “crutch” to complete an exercise if you’re not able to do it. That changed in the army when I saw that it seemed to help people get their first pull up done faster if they train their body to complete the motion.There are two ways of accomplishing this. You can either stand on a chair and do one pull up, which is easier than doing a full pull up from the ground.

Let me start off by saying that I wish that squatting had been a part of my integral workout routine before I joined the military. Why? Because I sincerely believe that squatting is the single most important exercise in preventing knee injuries, and that I would never have been injured in training had I been doing squats beforehand.

That’s right.

Squats are the single most important exercise in preventing knee injuries.

The fitness community has improved a great deal when it comes to understanding how great the squat exercise really is. We’ve come a long way since the days that the U.S. Army thought that squats were bad for the knees and banned it from training in certain units. In fact, today, the National Strength and Conditioning Association states “Squats, when performed correctly and with appropriate supervision, are not only safe, but may be a significant deterrent to knee injuries.”  (http://www.exrx.net/ExInfo/Squats.html)

While some of you may be fitness instructors yourself, I’m sure there are those of you just getting into working out for the first time. So for you, let’s go over the basics. How to do pushups, pullups, situps or planks properly. Once you have that down, you’ll be able to do a basic but excellent body-weight workout routine that is advised by the Navy Seals to do before training. I also did the workout routine that I’m going to show you before I was accepted into a special forces unit in the IDF.

Before we continue: A set is a series of repetitions. A repetition is the act of performing the exercise. So for push ups, one repetition would be do go all the way down, and then back up again. The amount of repetitions you do before stopping to rest, is a set. So 3 sets of 10 push ups means that you do 10 push ups, rest, and repeat 2 more times. Okay, now you’re ready to continue.