How to Fix the 6 Common Mistakes in Pushup

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

Mastering the Perfect Pushup (and Common Mistakes to Avoid)

We know. This isn’t the first time that you’ve heard that pushups are one of the most effective upper body exercises, and it certainly won’t be the last. Today, we’ll not only show you how to do the perfect pushup, but also the biggest mistakes to avoid.

Pushups are perfect for those of us that don’t want to pay for a gym membership, travel frequently, or love working out outside. They work every major muscle group in the body, including the legs!

It’s obviously effective for the chest, but did you also know that they help to strengthen back muscles, too? They also work both biceps and triceps, as well as the core.

The only major problem with pushups are these common mistakes, BUT with the directions and a few little technique fixes, you will be able to master pushups once and for all and get a great upper body workout with no equipment at all.

How to do The Perfect Pushup

Get into a Perfect Plank

• Start on a mat or on the floor on your hands and knees. Place your hands directly under your shoulders, and spread your fingers nice and wide. Be sure to place your weight into your knuckles and fingers, this will take some pressure off of the wrists.

• With your weight in your fingers, engage your chest muscles by slightly pulling your chest up to the ceiling. The muscles across your shoulder blades should almost feel as if they are pulling away from each other.

• Once your weight is in your fingers and your chest is engaged, step one foot back at a time, and ground your toes into the floor. You should now be in a full plank position.

• Engage your abdominals by tilting your pelvis slightly towards your nose. This should tighten your abs, lengthen your lower back, and will help to keep your hips in the correct position.

• Once your abs are tight, start to engage the muscles in your legs. Tighten your quadriceps, or the front of your thighs, as you squeeze your glutes.

• Keep your gaze about one foot in front of you, so that the back of your neck stays long and in alignment. Hold here and take a few breaths. By now you should feel every muscle in your body working.

Lower Towards the Floor

• Now we’re moving! Start to bend your elbows by keeping them close in by your sides. This means they should start to point back towards your feet. By the end of the movement, your elbows should be bent at about 90 degrees.

• Keep your gaze slightly in front of you as you lower down, making sure not to look too far forward, which would result in cocking the neck.

• Be sure to keep your abdominals and legs engaged as you lower to keep your torso and legs in one straight line. At the lowest point of your movement, your hips should be at the same height as your shoulders.

• As you lower, inhale through your nose and focus on drawing your shoulder blades down your back.

Now Pushup

• Focusing on keeping the weight in your fingers and knuckles, begin to press into your hands to lift your body back up.

• Exhale as you keep the elbows close in by your sides and you use the muscles in the chest and triceps to straighten the arms back up.

• Be sure to keep your hips moving up with you as you go. This is an easy place for those hips to sag! Keep the abs extra tight.

• Repeat your pushups 10-20 times until you can complete 3-4 sets with good form.

Common Mistakes and How to fix them

1. Letting your Hips Sag

Allowing your hips to drop too much can put a lot of excess pressure on your spine and vertebra. Sagging your hips is an indication of not properly activating your core.

How to fix it

Start by engaging your abs and tilting your pelvis towards your nose. This should lengthen your lower back and take away a lot of pressure you might be feeling. Lift your hips slightly so that they are just lower than your shoulders.

2. Hips Too High

Just as easily, you may also face the issue of your hips being too high. This is also a clear sign that your abdominals are not engaged. Because a correct pushup is a full-body exercise, it’s important to make sure you are getting all the benefits throughout the exercise.

How to fix it

Engage your glutes by squeezing your glutes together. This should allow your hips to lower slightly. Try keeping them just about shoulder height at the bottom of your pushup.

3. Arms too Far Forward

A lot of people make the mistake of placing their arms too far in front on them. This is bad for two reasons. First, this can place strain on the elbows and shoulders, and second, it’s extremely inefficient, and will work the chest very little.

How to fix it

Be sure to place the hands directly under the shoulders. Try to perform your pushups next to a floor-length mirror and make sure your arms are straight up and down, like pillars.

4. Flaring Arms out to the Side

If you are doing a standard pushup with your hands directly under your shoulders (not a wide pushup) allowing your elbows to bow out to the side will put a lot of stress on the shoulders.

How to fix it

When lowering into your pushup, keep the elbows in close by sides, and bend the elbows to 90 degrees at the bottom. If this is too challenging for your upper body strength, try practicing a modified pushup on your knees until you work up enough strength.

5. Straining Your Neck

Looking too far in front of your not only puts stress on your cervical spine, but can also inhibit your breathing while performing your pushup.

How to fix it

Be sure to look down while doing your pushups. Before you start, while in your plank position, find a focus point about one foot in front of you. As you lower into your pushup, continue gazing at that point, and then push back up. This will ensure you are not cocking your head during the movement.

6. You Don’t Go Low Enough

Lots of people don’t get enough depth in their pushups to really get full muscle engagement. Many go only halfway, and doing them this way won’t improve your strength like a full pushup would.

How to fix it

When you lower into the pushup, make sure your elbows are bent at at least a 90-degree bend, and your upper arms are parallel to the floor. As you push back up, be sure to fully extend the arms.

Pushup Modifications

These are the two most common modifications, both to regress AND progress your standard pushup. Once you have these down, try these 10 different pushup variations to shake things up!

Regression – Knee Pushups

To find the right position, start in a full plank on your hands, with your hands directly under your shoulders and a straight line from head to feet. Without changing your position at all, just lower your knees to the mat, continuing to keep the straight line from your head to your knees (make sure you are not directly on your knee caps).

Engage your abdominals and lower down, bending the elbows. Focus on pressing through your knuckles to push up, to prevent discomfort in your wrists.

Progression – Single Leg Pushups

Starting in your plank position, engage your abs, and specifically your obliques.

Squeeze your glutes and raise one leg up off the ground. It doesn’t have to be too high, just focus on squeezing your glutes and not shifting your weight too much to the side. Perform your set of pushups with the leg lifted the entire set. On your next set, raise the opposite leg to work both sides evenly.

With these common mistakes corrected, you should be well on your way to strengthening your upper body and can soon start adding other pushup variations into your repertoire.

Watch the Video Here – How to Fix the 6 Common Mistakes in Pushup

Written by Deanna Dorman

Author Bio:

Deanna is an ACE® certified personal trainer, Balanced Body® Pilates instructor, and NASM® Fitness Nutrition Specialist. She is passionate about inspiring others to lead a healthier lifestyle through fun workouts and healthy food. When she’s not creating new workouts and recipes for her blog The Live Fit Girls she enjoys running with her two dogs and traveling.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.

To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook

25 No-Equipment Bodyweight Exercises You Can Do at Home

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

No Equipment, No Problem – 25 Bodyweight Exercises You Can Do at Home

Who needs a gym when you can work out in your own living room? Here are 25 home bodyweight exercises to tone every inch!

We get it, some days it’s hard to leave the comfort of your own home.

As much as you want to get a workout in, you really just don’t want to drag yourself to the gym. So, we’ve compiled a list of 25 of the best home bodyweight exercises to tone and strengthen every muscle from head to toe.

Full Body & Cardio

1. Burpees – Start standing with feet together, lower into a deep squat position to bring your hands down to the floor. Jump your legs backwards into a full plank position on your hands. Jump your feet back into your low squat position and jump up, reaching your hands overhead. (For a modification, take out the jump and just stand up.)

2. Inchworm – Start by standing at the end of your mat with your feet hip-distance apart. Bend forward to reach your hands to the mat in a forward fold, reaching your hands flat on the mat (your knees may bend slightly). Walk your hands out about a foot at a time all the way out into a full plank position. Hold in the plank for a second or two and walk your hands all the way back into the forward fold, and repeat.

3. Jumping Jacks – Start standing with feet together and your arms by your sides. Jump the feet out wider than shoulder-width apart, as you bring the arms out to the side and overhead. As you jump the feet back together, bring the arms back down. Be sure to get the heels all the way down with each jump and repeat for 60 seconds. (I promise they won’t seem as easy as when you were 5 years old!)

4. High Knees – Start by jogging in place, focusing on bringing the knees up in front of you. As you get into the rhythm of things, start to go faster, bringing the knees higher and higher. Keep going for 30-60 seconds.

(Read: A Dynamic Stretching Warm-Up to Activate Your Muscles)

5. Skaters – Start by standing with most of your weight in your RIGHT leg as you bring your left foot behind you. Slightly lower down to help you propel yourself up, hopping your LEFT leg out to the side and landing on the left foot, bringing the right foot behind you. Continue hopping side to side, landing on one foot on each side. Complete 20 repetitions for a total of 30-60 seconds.

6. Mountain Climbers – Start in a plank position on your hands. Keeping your abs engaged and your shoulders directly over your hands, drive your RIGHT knee in towards your chest, using your abs to pull it in. Quickly reach that leg back and drive your LEFT knee in towards your chest. Go as quickly as you can while maintaining abdominal strength. Complete for 30 seconds to a minute.

7. Push-Up Jacks – Start as if you were going to be doing a standard push-up. As you lower down with your upper body, quickly jump your feet out wider than shoulder-width apart. As you push up, hop the feet back in, together.

Legs

8. Squats – Bring feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, and knees and toes slightly turned out. Place your hands behind your head and retract your shoulders together to open the chest. Squat down, sitting back as if sitting into a chair, keeping the weight in the heels and the chest open. Power through the heels to come back up to standing, squeezing the glutes at the top.

9. Jump Squats – Stand with feet a little wider than shoulder-width apart, and knees and shoulders very slightly turned out to the side. Lower down into a squat, keeping your weight in your heels. With power, drive through your heels to propel yourself up into a jump straight up. Land softly, rolling from the toes down to the heels, and sink down into your squat to repeat. Perform 15-30 jumps, depending on your ability.

10. Lunge – Start with both feet together and slightly shift your weight into your RIGHT leg. Keeping your balance, step your LEFT foot behind you onto your toes. Bend both knees to about 90 degrees and lower down into a lunge position. Keeping your weight in your front foot, press into the heel to engage the hamstrings and glutes to stand back up.

11. Single Leg Bridge – Lay on your back on a mat and bend your knees so your feet are flat on the ground. Bring your feet parallel and hip-distance apart. With your heels, close in towards your glutes. Extend your LEFT leg up to the ceiling. Using the RIGHT leg, press into the heel to lift the hips up, creating a straight line from your knee to your shoulders. Be sure to keep the hips parallel to the floor and squeeze the glutes. Lower the hips back down and repeat. Switch to complete all repetitions on the other side.

12. Single Leg Deadlift – Stand with feet together and holding dumbbells by your sides. Shift your weight into your RIGHT foot, making sure to keep most of the weight in the heel. Hinge at your hips, keeping your back straight and lift your LEFT leg so that your torso and leg are parallel to the floor.

You should feel a stretch in your RIGHT hamstring and the crown of your head should be reaching forward. Pressing through the heel and engaging the hamstring, straighten back up to standing. Repeat all repetitions on one side, then switch legs.

13. Wall Sit – Find an open, flat wall and stand next to it with your back flat against it. Walk your feet forward about 2 feet or so (about your own thigh-length away from the wall) and lower down into a squat position with a 90-degree bend in your knees.

Make sure to keep your knees in line with your toes, press your tailbone into the wall, and keep your shoulders back. To make this more advanced, you can hold a dumbbell in each hand or on your thighs. Hold for 30 seconds to start, and progress to 60 seconds as you become stronger.

Arms

14. Push-Up – Come into a full plank position on your hands, and position your hands directly under your shoulders for a narrow push-up, or wider than shoulder-width apart for a wide push-up. Lower down into a push-up with your elbows in by your sides for a narrow push-up, or out wide to the side with a 90-degree bend in your elbows. Press back up to the plank and repeat. This can be modified by lowering down to the knees if needed.

15. Lateral Plank Walks – Start in a full plank position with your hands directly under your shoulders and feet hip-distance apart. Slightly shift your weight into your left hand and leg as you step your RIGHT hand and foot out about six inches to the right. Slightly shift over to the right side of your body as you step the LEFT hand and foot to come back underneath you. Continue stepping your hands and feet over to the right for 5-10 “steps,” and then step back to the LEFT.

16. Alternating Shoulder Tap Planks – Starting in a full plank position, keep your hips as steady as possible as you reach your RIGHT hand to tap your LEFT shoulder. Place the RIGHT hand back into its starting position, and then tap the LEFT hand to the RIGHT shoulder. Continue alternating as fast as you can without wiggling the hips.

17. Military or Dynamic Plank – Starting in a basic plank position on your elbows, you will be pressing yourself up to a full plank. Place your RIGHT hand directly where your RIGHT elbow was to lift up, and as you do so place the LEFT hand where the LEFT elbow was. You should now be in a full plank. To lower back down, bend the RIGHT elbow and place it on the floor where the RIGHT hand was, and repeat with the LEFT. Aim to complete 10 repetitions with the RIGHT arm leading the movement, then repeat starting with the LEFT arm leading.

18. Pike/Handstand Push-up – This starts taking the decline push-up to another level. This push-up will focus primarily on the shoulders and can be performed in a pike position (shown), with feet elevated in a pike position (similar to a decline push-up), or in a handstand with your feet against a wall for support. If you want to get fancy and are strong enough, you could even do a freestanding handstand push-up (please only attempt this if you can do a handstand and hold it for a period of time).

For the pike push-up, start in a downward facing dog position, with a wide hand position and your weight shifted more into your hands. Look up at your belly button to keep your neck in line with your spine. Bend the elbows out to the side and lower until the crown of your head just hovers above the ground, then press back up.

Perform the same movement in an elevated pike position of a handstand position. Start with fewer repetitions and work your way up.

Core

19. Plank – Come onto hands and knees with your hands directly under your shoulders. Brace through your abdominals and extend your legs back, placing the balls of the feet on the mat behind you. Create a straight line from the crown of your head to your feet. Be sure not to let your lower back arch, and keep your abs tight the entire time. Hold for 30 seconds for beginners and work your way up to 60 seconds.

20. Side Plank – Lay on your RIGHT side, stacking your hips and feet. Position your bottom RIGHT elbow directly under your RIGHT shoulder. Lift your bottom hip off the ground to create a straight line in a plank. Your should be lifting from your bottom oblique and feel a slight pinch in the waistline. Reach your top hand towards the ceiling or place it on your top hip. Be sure to complete the side plank on both sides, you may notice one side is stronger than the other (that’s normal, but we want to fix that as much as possible). To modify this exercise, keep your bottom knee on the ground.

21. Straight Leg Crunch – Lying on your back, extend your arms and legs straight up to the ceiling. Pull your navel into your spine and use your abs to lift your head, neck, and shoulders off the mat to reach the hands towards the feet. With control, lower your head back down. If you need more support for your neck, place your hands behind your head, but be sure not to pull on the neck.

22. Bicycle – Lay on your back on the mat and place your hands behind your head. Bring your knees up in a 90-degree bend, with your knees directly over your hips. Using your abs, lift your chest and your head off the mat a few inches and rotate to the RIGHT, reaching your LEFT elbow to your RIGHT knee, and simultaneously reaching your LEFT leg out straight to hover off the mat. Come back into the center with your knees over your hips, and repeat on the other side.

23. Leg Lowers – This crunchless ab exercise really focuses on those lower abs, but as you perform this exercise you will feel all over those abs and even feel the muscles in the back help stabilize your torso. Lay on your back and raise your legs into the air. With control, lower your legs towards to floor but keep the lower back glued to the mat. You don’t have to go down too far, just be sure to keep the abdominals engaged. Use the lower abs to pull those legs back up.

24. Windshield Wipers – Lay on your back with your arms out in a “T” position and your legs extended straight up to the ceiling. Engage your abdominals and keep your shoulders glued to the floor as you let your legs drop over to the RIGHT a few inches, allowing your left hip to come slightly off the ground. As you feel like you just start to lose control, use your LEFT side obliques to pull the legs back up to the center, straight up. Repeat on the other side for one full repetition.

25. Superman – Laying on your stomach on your mat, extend your arms over your head with your palms facing down. Reach the crown of your head forward and let your nose hover an inch off the ground. Draw your shoulder blades down your back as you lift your arms and legs a few inches off the ground. Think about squeezing your glutes and pulling your shoulders together to engage your entire back. Lower your arms and legs, and repeat.

Watch this video – No Equipment Bodyweight Workout – At Home Core, Butt and Thighs Workout

Written by Deanna Dorman

Author Bio:

Deanna is an ACE® certified personal trainer, Balanced Body® Pilates instructor, and NASM® Fitness Nutrition Specialist. She is passionate about inspiring others to lead a healthier lifestyle through fun workouts and healthy food. When she’s not creating new workouts and recipes for her blog The Live Fit Girls she enjoys running with her two dogs and traveling.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.

To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook

A Dynamic Stretching Warm-Up to Activate Your Muscles

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

A Dynamic Stretching Routine You Can Do in Under 5 Minutes

Start every workout with this dynamic stretching warm-up to activate your muscles and take your workout to a new level.

For years, traditional static stretching was the standard that most people follow when exercising. Until recently, only athletes and professionals used dynamic stretching as a way to stretch and warm up for their workouts.

However, dynamic stretching isn’t for athletes only. Here’s how you can benefit from dynamic stretching, and how to do it.

What is Dynamic Stretching?

Unlike static stretching, which involves holding still, dynamic stretching is done with movement. While static stretching is best when performed after a workout, dynamic stretching is meant to warm up the muscles that you will be using during your workout or in specific sports.

These stretches bring joints or muscles through a repetitive motion, moving that part of the body further with each repetition. Warming up the muscles like this will help to prepare the joints and muscles for better movement and activation.

Dynamic stretches should be done after warming up the body for five to 10 minutes with a light jog or other light cardio activity. A proper warm up increases blood flow, raises core body and muscle temperature, and enables the muscles to stretch better.

Here are a few things that dynamic stretching can do:

• Activate the correct muscles. You should dynamically stretch the muscles you plan to use during your workout. For example, if you’re going to do weighted lunges in the gym, a proper dynamic warm up would be walking lunges. This will warm up your legs, hips, glutes, core, and stabilizing muscles before you add additional weight.

• Increase range of motion. Lets take the walking lunges as an example again. Walking lunges require greater range of motion through the hips, and especially through the hip flexors. Adding dynamic stretching before your workout will allow you to get deeper into each movement to get the most muscle engagement for each exercise.

• Strengthen muscles. Dynamic stretching allows you to “wake up” underactive muscles that would otherwise remain inactive, even when performing the exercise with weights. For example, if you warm up with prisoner squats (shown below), you can comfortably get deep into a squat position while minimizing risk of an injury from extra weight.

• Enhance body awareness. When you perform dynamic stretches, you challenge your balance and coordination. This enhances the nervous system and helps improve motor ability. It also forces you to focus and concentrate on the muscles you are using, as well as the workout you will perform.

Start your workouts with this total body dynamic stretching routine that will warm you up in less than five minutes. Remember to warm up with light cardio for 5-10 minutes before stretching.

Arm Swings | 20 reps

1. Stand with your back straight and abs engaged.

• Gently swing your arms out to to the side and then across the front of your body, alternating which arm swings on top. Gradually start making the swings larger so that you can feel a slight stretch in your chest and between your shoulder blades.

• Swing your arms for a total of 20-30 times.

Walking Toe Touches | 20 reps

1. Start standing with your feet together.

• Reach your arms out in front of you. Kick your RIGHT leg forward into the air, reaching to tap it to your LEFT hand. Repeat with the LEFT leg reaching to the RIGHT hand.

• Continue alternating for 20 reps.

Prisoner Squats | 15 reps

1. Bring feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, and knees and toes slightly turned out.

• Place your hands behind your head and retract your shoulders together to open the chest.

• Squat back and down, as if sitting into a chair, keeping the weight in the heels and the chest open. Power through the heels to come back up to standing, squeezing the glutes at the top.

• Repeat for 15 reps.

Walking Lunges | 20 reps

1. Start standing with your feet together, and plenty of room in front of you. Put your hands on your hips or by your sides.

• Step your RIGHT foot forward far enough so that when you lunge down, your right thigh is parallel to the floor. You should feel a stretch through the front of your left hip.

• Press though your RIGHT heel and power up to bring your feet together and stand up.

• Next, step the LEFT foot forward. Continue alternating for 10 steps, then turn around and lunge 10 steps back to your starting point.

Plank Rotations | 20 reps

1. Start in a full plank position.

• Rotate so that your weight shifts to your RIGHT hand as you lift your LEFT arm up in the air above your shoulder. Lower back down and rotate to the other side, lifting the RIGHT arm up.

• Continue for 10 reps per side. Make sure to keep your shoulders steady and don’t lift your hips too high.

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As you can see, many of the common exercises you do in the gym can be used as a dynamic stretch when only using your bodyweight. Practice this routine and see if you can improve your range of motion during your workouts!

Watch this video – 6 Best DYNAMIC Stretching Warm Up Exercises

Written by Deanna Dorman

Author Bio:

Deanna is an ACE® certified personal trainer, Balanced Body® Pilates instructor, and NASM® Fitness Nutrition Specialist. She is passionate about inspiring others to lead a healthier lifestyle through fun workouts and healthy food. When she’s not creating new workouts and recipes for her blog The Live Fit Girls she enjoys running with her two dogs and traveling.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.

To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook