One Leg push up challenge

Push ups are an excellent body weight exercise that use a wide range of muscles throughout the whole body to some extent.  There are plenty of push up variations around to stress some muscles more or less than others.  Some variations I like and others I don’t like.  This post is about a push up variation that I like but I rarely see it being used: the one leg push ups. 

In any push up, the wider your arms or legs are the more stable your base of support and the less inclined your body is to tip or rotate.  Most people who do regular push ups do not think about maintaining stability as it is not usually an issue.  As such, these muscles that assist in core strength and back stability are often neglected unless you work on them in some other way.  

Lifting one leg decreases your stability and makes your body want to slightly rotate or tilt one way or another.  One leg push ups mostly work the upper body, but your core also gets strengthened as you need to work slightly harder to keep everything stable. 

One leg push ups 

Doing one leg push ups works stabiliser muscles, this builds core strength and provides a functional benefit that is useful in a range of other situations.  They also make regular push ups slightly easier.  It also works lower body muscles, the higher you lift your foot the more those muscles are worked.

The first few times you do one leg push ups you have to really think about remaining stable.  It doesn't take too long before your stabiliser muscles just do their job and you no  longer have to think about it at all.

To do a one leg push up, get in the regular push up (often called high plank) position.  Feet together, hands not overly far apart, back straight.  

Push up/high plank position 

From here lift one leg and try to keep it straight.  Everything else should remain where it was, only your leg should have moved.  Try to have your leg as high as you can make it go as you will get more benefit from this. 

Lift one leg, do some push ups 

Push ups with one leg in the air 

Do some push ups with your straight leg in the air, try not to tilt or roll in any direction, maintain control.  Try not to let your pelvis rotate, try to keep it in the same position it would be for regular push ups.  Only your wrists, elbows, and shoulders should be moving.  All other joints should be held as they are.

After you have finished that side you should be in the high plank position with one leg in the air.  Lower that leg with control and put your foot on the ground, nothing else should move.  

Now lift your other leg into the air, keep it straight.  Get your foot as high as you can.  Nothing else should move yet, just your leg.  

Now you do the same number of one leg push ups on that side.  You need to do the same number on both sides to ensure that you are working muscles on both sides evenly.  If you find you have a weaker side, always do that side first.

Other leg in the air 

Doing pushups with the other leg in the air - my elbows should be in more and my leg needs to be straighter

The one leg push up is only slightly more difficult than regular push ups.  As it is not overly more difficult but it does have added benefits it should be included in your normal routine.  My son has started a one leg push up challenge with me.  I don’t really remember agreeing to this, but somehow he has a lot of power in this challenge. 

One leg push up challenge: 

At various times throughout the day while I am at home my son will come and tell me it is time for push ups.  We then both do five (only five) one leg push ups on each side.  It’s only ten push ups in total.  Meaning it isn’t difficult to maintain control and maintain our form.  It also means the time needed for rest after each set is very short. 

Even though it is only ten push ups in total per set, the fact that my son pops in dozens of times throughout the day means we are doing a lot of one leg push ups over the course of a day.  The number we do in a day fluctuates.  If I am at work there are very few opportunities for us to do push ups so we don't get to do many.  If I work from home or on weekends we do a lot more sets.  

Maintaining good form, low numbers per set, and fluctuating numbers of sets in a day, has meant that we have both gained strength quickly and our form is rock solid.

You should do a similar challenge and see how quickly you improve.  One day do as many one leg push ups you can, go to failure.  Write that number somewhere.  Every day after this, no excuses, do sets of 5 per leg (10 in total) over the day.  If five is too many you can do three per side or even two per side.  Don’t go to failure again, only do 5 per leg, don’t go above this number no matter how simple it feels, but do many of these sets over the day.  Don’t have a ‘rest day’, but do have a day where you do less sets.  Maintain control, if your push ups start to get sloppy - stop.

Once per week, and only once per week, do as many one leg push ups as you can.  Go to failure, and write down that number.  Do this for one month (or at least four weeks).  You will find that you quickly increase the number of one leg push ups that you can do.  

If you have been doing push ups for some time and have plateaued in the number you can do, try this.  Do sets of no more than five, and do lots of sets through the day, and you will see an increase in the maximum that you can do.  You have nothing to lose, and you will increase strength beyond your previous personal best. 

This is the essence of prochnost training.  Be strong - byt' sil'nym (быть сильным).

Fitbit charge 4 review

A year or two ago my wife got me a Fitbit charge 4 watch. I have had it for a while now, and used it extensively, so figured I should do a review on it to give people a better understanding before buying one. 

To prevent the screen from getting ruined I put a special little cover on it. This hasn’t stopped it from working or made it less sensitive, but has protected it from scratches and drops of deck stain etc.  

 

The band didn’t last very long before it broke, luckily replacement bands are cheap and easy to find. I got one with lots of little holes so my sweat can get out and sunlight can reach more of my skin. 

I recharge it once a week or thereabouts, which is easy to do.  When the battery runs low it sends me an email.

My Fitbit charge 4 has some features that I like, and some that I dislike. 

Fitbit charge 4 

Some features I like are that it measures my heart rate and oinks at me when my heart rate is high for too long, it tells the time like a normal watch, it acts as a pedometer counting my steps and estimating the distance walked, it can roughly tell me how long I sleep each night, and it emails me each week to let me know how that week compared to the previous week.

Some features that I dislike are that it has a ‘stalking’ function where it can track my every step using an intrusive GPS, it has a ‘constant irritation’ function where it can alert me every time I receive an email, a 'threatening email' function where it sends me increasingly threatening emails telling me to recharge as the battery level goes down, and some ‘eye strain/meditation’ functions that tell you to watch some tiny dots for two minutes to calm yourself.  

I am happy to say that most of the functions I dislike, such as the stalking function and the constant irritation function, can easily be turned off. I can also put it on ‘sleep’ or ‘do not disturb’ which prevents it from oinking or lighting up when I don’t want it to.  It still emails me about the battery going flat, I guess this could be useful but I find it irritating.

Overall it has a lot more features that I like than those that I dislike.

The heart rate monitor has its down sides, but overall I think it is good. It quickly and reasonably accurately tells me what my heart rate is in beats per minute. If my heart skips a beat, or beats twice, the Fitbit somehow ignores this and evens them out. It draws a little graph of my heart rate across the day, but my heart rate needs to be at that level for more than a certain amount of time otherwise it is not included. I have had plenty of times where I wake at night and my Fitbit tells me my heart rate is 140+ beats per minute, only to check the graph in the morning and find no mention of anything over 110 which is rather frustrating.

If my heart rate is above some number that it decides is in the ‘fat burning zone’ it will oink at me and encourage me to keep going, presumably it thinks I am exercising at these times. This number changes from day to day due to some algorithm it has. Sadly my heart often races for no reason, so this oinking often happens while I am just sitting still, or even when I am sleeping, so the encouragement serves more as a reminder to concentrate on my heart and slow it down rather than encouragement to exercise.

screenshot of Fitbit heart rate

The heart rate monitor also tells me what my average resting heart rate is across each day. This is completely inaccurate and should be ignored. For the above screen shot it told me that my resting heart rate was 77 over that day. I was resting for the majority of that day and my heart rate only once dropped below 78 once for a very brief moment during the entire day. 

 

As you can see, my average resting heart rate would have been a lot higher than 77 that day. 

The heart rate monitor also tells me I am super fit for my age, which I am not. I assume the algorithms are aimed at fatter people and even though I have entered my height and weigh the algorithms cannot work for skinny people such as myself. This is one of the many reasons why skinny fat people like me need to train differently.

Fitbit charge 4 with cover and new band

The watch tells me the time and the date, and is easy to see. Other than that I have no real comment, it is a watch that does what a watch should do.  I think it can also act as a stop watch.  It estimates how many calories you have burned, which is meaningless because in my opinion no one should ever count calories.  

The pedometer tells me when I have not walked enough steps each hour, or not enough each day, and I think I can change the number of steps that is considered enough. The pedometer is not overly accurate, to be honest it isn’t too bad and I don’t think any pedometers are ever completely accurate. An example of its inaccuracy is that I have been woken at night by the kids calling out for help, I have walked all the way up and down the hall as well as into another room to wash my hands, all to have it only record 9 steps. I have had other times where me rocking back and forth has been recorded as hundreds of steps. It seems a little inconsistent, but over a day I think it evens out near enough for my purposes.

The function designed to tell me how much I sleep isn’t accurate and doesn’t tell me anything that I don’t already know. I know when I sleep, and I know when I am awake. I put it on sensitive mode that is meant to be more accurate, yet sometimes I can get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and be at work (working from home) for half an hour before it records me as even being awake. As long as you take it as a trend rather than an accurate number of minutes or hours slept then I think it is useful enough.

The Fitbit makes graphs for all kinds of things.  I like graphs, so I like how it does this.

I think if I paid extra I could get more graphs, more stats on health related things, and access to training videos etc.
 

My verdict

Do I like my Fitbit charge 4 watch: Yes

Do I need a Fitbit or similar:  No

Which brand is the best: I have no idea.  There are a few different brands that make a similar product.  This suits my needs really well, but you may need it to do other things that this one doesn’t do.  

Are they worth the money: Probably not if you buy one new.  Second hand they are cheaper than a watch so I think they are worth the money.  I wear mine pretty much all day every day.  I use it as a watch and I find the heart rate monitor very useful.