PICTURES TO COME!!
Introduction |
Pushups are excellent exercises, but, as indicated in previous pages, they are too difficult for many or most people. In fact, they are so difficult that in addition to being used in military training, they are used as punishment: Give me 60, Soldier...). | |
| a pushup is just an upside bench press | And, it provides a load on your arms of about 2/3 of your bodyweight. Even if you can't do a full pushup, support yourself in pushup position with your hands on a bathroom scale, and see what it reads. | |
| Yet, weights and machines dominate the commercial fitness
world, for several reason 1. As stated, not everyone can do a single pushup; thus, the exercise becomes essentially moot. 2. Fewer people can do 10; and, too many or two few of a given exercise falls outside of our "range of satisfactions" for repetitions. 3. The resistance level (the perceived weight) is not regarded as adjustable. 4. Many people, the inventor included, simply don't like to get on the floor! Sounds weird, and is not necessarily a germo-phobic thing, but it is a factor. 5. Push-ups are now perceived as inferior to higher-tech methods of providing resistance to the arms ("working the arms"), or perhaps as even outright irrelevant, given the non-press they receive. 6. The pushup can be a little tough on some peoples wrists, requiring at least a 90 degree bend, with lots of force on it. 7. The techno-babble of exercise physiology has inserted itself into our minds by way of the marketeers, leading us to believe that muscle groups must be isolated to be effectively developed. |
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| What the pushup does | If you were to do only one upper body exercise and no
other, there would be many good arguments for the pushup. Without getting into
all gory details, it addresses in some form (even if only isometrically,
virtually EVERY muscle in the body. Of course, the arms, chest, shoulders and
back are emphasized. What about muscle isolation that machines brag about? In many senses, this is a disadvantage. Why not kill as many birds with one stone as possible? |
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| Pushups and the HoloBarre | We will now address these issues, while showing how the
HoloBarre makes pushups an extraordinarily useful, versatile, and accessible
exercise for all, the the point where it obviates bench-press type machines
for most people!
To begin with, the ability to provide inclined pushups now makes the pushup accessible to EVERYONE, whereas previously, few people could comfortably perform them By offering reduced stress pushups (as well as INCREASED stress pushups), and differing handgrips, it allows them to be much more ergonometric. |
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| The Pec Deck: A hobbled pushup? | Did you know that the Pec Deck machine,
which so many home gyms strive to incorporate, and which are so popular in
commercial gyms, is nothing more than an isolated pushup? How can you
absolutely prove that this is a true statement? Perform the motion of the pec deck while sitting or standing. Watch the trajectory (path) of the elbow. Now do the equivalent pushup motion: Elbows at shoulder height, like before, but forearms parallel to the ground (at shoulder height) instead of pointing up. Do the pushup motion and watch the trajectory of the elbow. IT IS IDENTICAL TO THE PEC DECK MOTION, WHICH MEANS THAT ALL THE MUSCLES "AFTER" THE ELBOW IN THE PEC DECK ARE BEING STRESSED IDENTICALLY TO THOSE IN THE PUSHUP! This means that a pec deck is simply a pushup with the forearms, wrists, and hands out of the way! Which means that the only people who need to use pec decks are those with broken or missing or arthritic forearms, wrists, or hands. The pushup also includes contraction of the tricep, while the pec deck omits this muscle. So the pec deck isolates the chest muscles to a higher degree, but then it is the position here that isolation of muscle groups is not only irrelevant but contrary to the normal person's fitness goals. |
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| Thus, the pec deck is inferior to the pushup! | Thus, because you simultaneously address three other parts of the body, the pushup is better, i.e., more efficient, than a pec deck. There is almost never a need to isolate limbs or muscles, unless it is therapeutic/medical in nature, or you are body building. And, another resulting conclusion from this is that for 99.9% of the public, the pec deck is a superfluous piece of equipment,, replaceable by, you guessed it, the push-up. |
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