Kettlebell swings for beginners - physiotherapist tips

Kettlebell swings are a great whole body exercise.  Kettlebell swings are an excellent exercise for beginners and more experienced people as they build overall body strength and help to strengthen any weak areas.  

I am self taught at kettlebell swings: I have read a bit about them, I have watched a few 'how to' videos, I know things that would be dangerous for my body, I know my body's strengths, I know my body's weaknesses, and from there can pretty much work out what to do and what not to do.  

There are various training programs that encompass only two exercises, kettlebell swings almost always being one of them.  This fact demonstrates how beneficial kettlebell swings can be in gaining functional strength and improving condition.  

As kettlebell swings are so useful in building whole body functional strength and becoming less prone to injury I decided to write a post on how to do a kettlebell swing.  Obviously, being aimed at a beginner, the instructions need to be accurate and easy to understand, otherwise the beginner would risk injury or (even worse) forming bad habits. 

I tried a few times to write instructions, and was always scared that they would not be comprehensive enough for a beginner.

Pavel Tsatsouline Kettlebell swing (picture from somewhere on the internet) 

I found a web site of a physiotherapist who wrote a beginners guide to kettlebell swings.  This particular physiotherapist seemed to love kettlebell swings.  They raved about their benefits, both for rehabilitating injuries, as well as preventing future injuries.  

I saved their instructions for myself to read over if I was wondering about my technique.

Unfortunately I lost the link to the web site, otherwise I would link to it.  It looked like a great website.  If anyone knows the one please add a comment below so I can add a link.  

Russian giryi - versatile strength building tools

An explanation on how to do kettlebell swings from a physio is certainly better, safer, and more comprehensive than anything I could write.  A physiotherapist explaining kettlebell swings for beginners is also going to be better than anything written by an under trained and overly enthusiastic gym goer. 

Physiotherapist instructions on how a beginner should do kettlebell swings:

• With the kettlebell on the floor, position your feet on either side at slightly more than hip-width apart, with your toes angled slightly outward. 
• Bend your knees a little and keep your abs engaged, drawing your belly button toward your spine.
• As you reach for the kettlebell handle, tip your torso forward, keeping your back as straight as you can, while pressing your hips back
• Breathing in as you grab the handle firmly, and with your core still engaged, roll your shoulders back slightly.  This will help control your swing momentum.
• As you exhale, drive your hips forward to rise to an upright position in one powerful movement. 
• Allow the kettlebell to swing forward as high as it will naturally go, usually shoulder height.
• Inhale and allow the kettlebell to swing back down between your legs, pressing your hips back and keeping your neck aligned with your spine.
• Continue the kettlebell swings in sets of 10.
• Remember to keep your torso straight and to power the movement with your hips and glutes.

Giryi are like cannon balls with handles

If you are not already doing them, do kettlebell swings.  Do kettlebell swings every day, no rest days, no reward days, do them every single day.  Some days do light, other days do heavy, and never go to failure.  Kettlebell swings make you stronger. 

To quote Pavel Tsatsouline: doing the perfect kettlebell swing alone is superior to 99 percent of the sophisticated strength and conditioning programs out there.  

  

Floods and the local public chin up bar

Our local council has one set of outdoor exercise equipment for the public to use.  There is only one in the region.  It has some of those inclined benches and things that no one really knows how to use, and some of those little fitness steps that people pretend to use, and a few other pointless things that are mostly for show.

There were no dip bars, and no monkey bars (yes adults should use monkey bars).  The one good part of this exercise equipment was a chin up bar.  Strangely enough, the chin up bar was likely the least expensive piece of equipment there.  I had used that chin up bar a few times, I like it.

There are more public chin up bars about an hour drive from here in a different council, I haven't been to them yet.  One day I plan to take my kids to those, but don't want to drive an hour each way just for that so have been putting it off until we go out there for something else.  I don't know why chin up bars are so uncommon, and why parks have phased out monkey bars.  

No one really uses chin up bars in this country.  I haven't seen anyone else use the local chin up bar.  I have a feeling that I may have done more chin ups on that bar than anyone else, and I had not been there many times.  I have monkey bars in my yard that I can use for chin ups and pull ups and other strength building exercises, but there are a few exercises that you can't do on monkey bars and really need a chin up bar to be able to do them.  

There seems to be an irony in Australia where people are not strong enough to use chin up bars, so councils do not install them.  As chin up bars are not in parks, the local populace are not able to train and get strong enough to use them.  If we had more of these things, people would use them more, and if people used them more then councils would install more of them - which came first the chicken or the egg?  

Some countries overseas (usually ex-Soviet countries) have public chin up bars, monkey bars, parallel bars, and other simple calisthenic equipment on almost every block.  These things are very common.  The things average people do on them is nothing less than remarkable!  If you have time take a look at this youtube video and it will give you an idea of what I am talking about.

Back to my story, a while ago most of the state was flooding.   The park is near a river and went under flood water.  

The only public chin up bar in the region after the flood

My son was concerned that the chin up bar would have been damaged in the floods.  When the water receded I took the kids to see how the only local chin up bar fared.  

As you can see, it did not do well.  Everything was destroyed, and council roped off the area for safety purposes.

Sadly, I can't imagine council repairing the local chin up bars any time soon.  

First 30 day challenge

After my success in completing the 100 push ups 30 day challenge, my son wanted to do his own 30-day exercise challenge.  

My son wanted to build strength.  The best way to do this for a thin person (or for anyone else) is to choose a strength building exercise, decide on some minimums, and meet those minimums every day for at least thirty days.  The more time you put in the better, but decent improvements can be seen after thirty days.

I asked him to decide on an exercise and a daily minimum.  He can exceed these minimums if he wishes, and he had to reach those minimums each and every day for 30 days.  

Being young I did not want him to do too much, I did not want him to get an overuse injury, so I made sure it was something I thought he could do reasonably easily.

My son decided on a minimum of 20 strict pull ups per day.  I figured he would safely be able to achieve this number.  This amount of exercise was not completed in one session, it was spread across the entire day, every day for thirty consecutive days.  

This isn't western style training, this is prochnost' style training, and it works.  

Spoiler alert: pull ups are hard. 

Before the Challenge

At the start of his challenge my son was struggling to do 3 or 4 strict pull ups in a set.  He probably could have done a few more pull ups with sloppy form, but he could only do 3 to 4 with good form.

For the first few days reaching 20 pull ups over the day was killing him, partly because it is a lot, and partly because he needed to do a lot of sets throughout the day when you are only doing at most 2 or 3 pullups per set!

Pull ups, even when it's cold 

Thirty Day Challenges are Grueling

It was rainy on the second day of his challenge, and he had no choice but to go and do his minimums in the rain.  That wasn't heaps of fun.  

A couple of days in to the challenge he was tired and wanted to have a rest day.  He wanted to have a day off and just do more the following day.  Unfortunately it doesn't work that way with these challenges.  You have to reach your minimums each and every day, and you have to do them using proper form.  For these challenges to work you must be consistent.  This isn't western style training, this is different, this actually works. 

Other days he was tired, or not in the mood, or it was cold, or it was hot, or doing pull ups was the last thing he felt like doing.  To quote Pavel Tsatsouline "the Soviet training programs doesn't care about your feelings and neither should you".  My son still pushed through and got it done.  

My son had to reach his minimums every day.  So he persevered even when he didn't feel like it, and he did 20 pull ups minimum every day.  He never went until failure, but he got stronger and his numbers did increase significantly over the course of the thirty days.

Pull ups in the heat

Half Way There

After 15 days he was often doing sets of 8 to 10 pull ups, which is very impressive considering where he started!  This wasn't his maximum, he didn't even know how many he could do in one set because I didn't want him to train to failure.  He could do sets of however many he wanted, but had to stop once his form started to get sloppy.  

Sloppy form does not build strength, sloppy form often leads to injury, once his form degraded he had to stop and rest.  If his technique was starting to fail he would stop, if he felt tired he would stop, if he felt pain he was to stop immediately.  

The progress he made by doing multiple small sets every single day is just incredible.  This was far more efficient than the feel the burn, get pumped, no pain no gain, push to failure, no limits, type of workout nonsense that is far too common in western strength training.  Had he been training until failure he would not have made this kind of progress.

Other than once before the beginning of his challenge, and once after the challenge had ended, he was not striving to reach his maximum.  

Strict pull ups - they do get easier

Results of the challenge:  

My son successfully completed his challenge doing multiple sets of small numbers.  

Thirty days doing a minimum of twenty pull ups per day meant he completed a minimum of 600 pull ups that month.  Given the number of times he exceeded his minimums his total number over the thirty days would have been substantially higher!  

After the end of the challenge I asked him to do his maximum.  To his surprise, his maximum increased from a respectable 4 before his challenge to a whopping 15 at the end of the challenge.  Once again he probably could have done a few more pull ups with sloppy form, but he could only do 15 with good form.

That is a massive increase from just 30 days of doing sets of small numbers, stopping if he felt tired, never feeling the burn, not hurting the following day, and never ever training until failure.  You don't see this kind of progress in western style strength training.  

I wish I knew more about prochnost' strength training when I was young.  It is far more efficient and far more suitable for skinny people than any form of western strength training.  Had I trained like this when I was younger I would have been vastly stronger from putting in the same amount of (or less) effort.  

Over the thirty days of his challenge, my son completed more pull ups than most people in this country will complete in their entire lives.  He did this without ever doing more than ten in a row.  

Hopefully my son's success (and incredible progress) will inspire you to give something like this a try.  Decide on an exercise that you can do at home, set a daily minimum, write this down so you can't cheat, then reach or exceed this minimum every day for thirty days.    

Give it a try, you have everything to gain and nothing (other than fat, illness, and weakness) to lose.  Be stronger.

Strength training at Floriade

A few months ago we went to Canberra.  Being spring in Canberra we took the kids to Floriade.  For those who don't know, Floriade is a spring flowering bulb festival that is held in the capital city of Australia each year.  I have only been a handful of times, and Floriade seems to have less flowers and more market stalls each time, but I digress...

When I am around, my kids seem to take every opportunity to demonstrate incredible feats of strength.  Not surprisingly the kids took this opportunity at Floriade to demonstrate their strength.   

It was cold, noisy, and my kids didn't perform at their best, but they still did really well!  

Benches are great for elbow lever

My son found a painted 'Floriade' sign and found a place in front of it where he could do elbow lever.  

Only his hands are touching the ground.  It kind of looked like he was falling into a hole!

Elbow lever - as easy as falling in a hole...

Once he starts he is there for a looong time

I love these next shots, they show how long he stayed up and how he really isn't bothered by people watching (or buggies driving past).

Step 1: begin elbow lever

Then the cart is in view

The cart is crawling along slower than walking pace

He is still holding elbow lever

Still holding - remember to breathe

Finally the buggy had driven past and he could relax

I can't remember if these are the same benches as above, or different ones a little further along the path.  My kids did a lot of strength exercises at Floriade, I only took photos of some of them.

It doesn't really matter, a lovely walk in the park among spring flowers is the perfect time for quiet exhibition of incredible strength!

I am super proud of my kids and impressed by how strong they are.  

Elbow lever looks great off park benches

It's too bad there is a bin in the background

True strength is light as a feather

One thing that people forget is that no matter how strong you are, if you try hard you will eventually fall.  That's ok, just make sure you are prepared to fall, and fall safely.  

Falling doesn't mean that you are weak, falling doesn't mean that you failed, it only means that you are trying hard.  If my son gave up early he would never fall.  He would also never progress.  

Fall, but fall safely.  Safely falling can be a good thing.  

Falling is inevitable (unless you aren't trying hard enough)

My daughter is also very good at these strength exercises.  She wasn't really in the mood on this day so didn't do them as much as my son.  

That's ok by me, I am incredibly impressed by her.

Elbow lever at Floriade

I wish the bins were not in the background

This is far too easy for her!

As well as benches, my kids found some poles.  These are far harder to use, and they are thin and were wobbly.  It takes a lot of strength to be able to do such things using a pole like this.

Both my son and my daughter did strength exercises off these poles.  My younger son's hands and feet can be seen on the left as he also tried to get involved.

Floriade strength exercises

Don't pretend this isn't impressive

You may notice that there are no photos of me attempting to do anything impressive like this at Floriade.  There is a very good reason for this, and it has nothing to do with me being the one holding the camera.  The reason is: I am not strong enough.

I was training to do elbow lever, and bent arm planche.  I started to be able to do them again.  While I was not as good at them as my kids are, I started being able to do them again.  

Then I got hurt and lost condition.  I am no longer strong enough to do elbow lever very well, and am not currently able to do bent arm planche.  

I will do more training and hopefully be strong enough one day to be able to keep up with my kids again.  

If you are unable to do these exercises you should do strength training.  Be strong - byt' sil'nym (быть сильным).  Don't ever 'work out', that is inefficient, if you are to be strong you must 'train' and you must train often.  These exercises build whole body strength, they build functional strength, they help you be better able to do other everyday things, and they help you be less prone to both injury and illness. 

To quote Pavel Tsatsouline: You can be anything you want...but you must be strong first. 

Russian Kettlebell aka girya (гиря)

The Kettlebell, known in Russian as girya, (гиря – roughly pronounced gear-ia, plural: giri, ги́ри) is a simple, effective, and efficient strength training tool.  

To quote Pavel Tsatsouline “The kettlebell is an ancient Russian weapon against weakness”.  Perhaps I should start to refer to girya as a 'weapon' instead of referring to it as a strength training 'tool'?  

In Russia today, kettlebells are still considered as a matter of national pride and a symbol of strength.  In the old days, any strongman or weightlifter in Russia was referred to as girevik.  This indicates just how inseparable girya is from strength.  

Kettlebells look a little bit like a cannon ball with a handle attached.  Modern kettlebells can made from various different metals, or plastics, they can be solid or filled with concrete or even water.  

Girya are used for a host of different strength building exercises.  They can effectively be used for targeting and ‘isolating’ muscle groups, as well as developing whole body functional strength.  

Girya kettlebell

The history of the kettlebell is a little unclear and there is a lot of controversy over it.  

Girya seem to come from Russia and date back at least 350 years, and are likely far older than that.  The Russian word for kettlebell is girya, and the earliest recorded mention of the word girya was in a Russian dictionary in 1704.  Given the (unverified) story behind the development of girya, it is likely that they were used by Russians for quite a long time prior to being recorded anywhere in writing. 

The story I have heard is that girya originated in rural Russia and where they were originally used as a counterbalance for weighing grain.  Back then, the Russian farmers used triangle shaped weights to measure out grain at the markets.  These weighed one “pood“ (pud, пуд), which is slightly over 16.38 kg (just over 36 pounds). 

image from kettlebellusa.com

It would not have taken long for people who were using these 16 kg weights all day for work to develop really strong arms.   

Unlike in the modern western world where importance is placed on being ‘less fat’ or on 'looking good', a lot of importance in Russia at the time was placed on an individual’s physical strength.  Obviously the Russian peasants at the time had no access to gyms or home weights, whereas these grain measuring weights would have been accessible to many people.  So they became a valid option for building strength.  

After noticing how strong the grain sellers were, the Russian peasants apparently started to swing around this weight as their strength training.  Clearly some people would have been injured, while others likely would have worked out routines that safely built strength in ways that they could not otherwise do.  It did not take long for the girya to become the one and only piece of exercise equipment that was available in the typical Russian home. 

Another thing I learned about their history is that girya were used in competition strength sports in Russia in the late 1800’s.  The first competitive kettlebell lifting or girevoy sport (гиревой спорт) was held in 1885 along with the founding of the "Circle for Amateur Athletics" (Кружок любителей атлетики). 

Small girya

From its beginnings, the kettlebell has changed shape a little to make it safer to lift, it can now be made out of array of different materials, it comes in weights ranging from pointlessly small to unimaginably heavy, can be dangerously ornamental with a face instead of a nice round cannon ball, and can be found in every colour imaginable.  Kettle bells are used in large gyms, or at home, and in various competitions.  

While various fads come and go with these, as they do with everything, the staple girya exercises have remained unchanged since well before I was born and are as effective in building strength today as they were hundreds of years ago.

I was once told if you walk into a gym and there are more machines than free weights that you should walk out.  Unfortunately that describes practically every public gym in Australia.  While not every gym has girya, they are becoming more common as time goes on.  

If you don’t have a kettlebell you should consider getting one.  Forget the gym, you can get your own girya.  They are useful in a wide range of strength building for the entire body or for targeting one area.  Don’t rush into this.  Look around and get one you like the feel of because this is going to be with you for countless hours for many years to come.  

If you are new to using giryi you probably want to start with one that is lighter than you think you should.  There are plenty of different exercises that you can use them for.  Once you build technique then you can progress to heavier weights.

Be strong (byt' sil'nym).

Push up fundraise challenge at work

Recently someone at work was doing a great thing. He was doing push ups to raise money for mental health. 

 

He joined some online challenge where he did a minimum number of push ups and people donated money, this sounded like a great thing. I have no idea which charity the money goes to, or if that place is doing anything useful with the money, or how much of the money is used compared to how much is spent on administration. I didn’t really look into it because after clicking on his link I got a bit annoyed.

Before I go on, I want to be clear, these sorts of money raising things can be great and some of the charities are excellent. I don’t want to discourage people from looking into if the money will be well spent, and then participating and/or donating. Look into the charity, and if they use the money well then go for it.

This is a fit and strong guy, he isn’t the usual overfat slob that tends to inhabit a corporate office. After looking at the link I was surprised at how few push ups were expected to be completed, as well as how few push ups he was completing each day.  

The website said the following:

Participants will take on 3,139 push-ups across 24 days in June, putting the spotlight on the tragic number of lives lost to suicide in Australia in 2020.

These numbers are too low and there are too many days in there to complete the challenge. Why would anyone donate money when someone is barely reaching mediocrity?

Again, let me be clear that I am not discouraging people from doing these challenges or donating money to people who are completing these challenges. The death rate from suicide is far too high, the number of people silently suffering from mental health issues is extraordinary, and the more we can do to help the better. I am not trying to minimise the effects of mental illness. I am purely commenting on how unimpressive this challenge is, and how I feel it should be more to achieve greater outcomes.

If you plan to complete 3,139 push-ups across 24 days, that is less than 131 per day. That is not many push ups across an entire day. It is only five sets of 26 or 27 push ups, which isn’t too difficult for most people to do each day. I don’t understand why doing such impressively low numbers would entice any one to donate any money. If this was conducted over ten days, or even fourteen days, then at least it would be vaguely impressive and require some effort. Twenty four days is far too long as it means so few push ups per day, I think it detracts from the challenge as it is too easy for most people to complete.

The link also had some graphs where this person logged the numbers of push ups he completed each day. To my surprise he even had rest days every week. To my even greater surprise, instead of smashing out the push ups, exceeding the minimums like mad, and then going on to do some more, he barely completed 3,139 on the final day. Other than the days were he did no push ups, he was only doing 100 to 223 push ups on any given day. In my mind that’s weak.

The numbers he completed each day

If you are new to push ups that is not weak, if you are doing personal challenges that is not weak, but if you are a strong and fit person who is publicising your push up prowess to encourage people to donate - then I think that this low number is pathetic. 

 

He should have been doing hugely more push ups! More each day, more each set, and more in total over the challenge. Why barely meet the minimums when he could have vastly exceeded them? He should have tried harder and done something impressive.

I am a skinny person who is not particularly fit or strong. I recently completed a personal challenge where I did a minimum of 1,000 push ups per day for 62 consecutive days. That means I was completing more than their 24 day minimum every three days, and I did this for two whole months without a break. Being skinny means I did this without bulking up, so you would never guess by looking at me that I was even capable of this let alone actually having achieved this.

Now that I have finished doing 1,000 push ups per day challenge I am currently doing a minimum of 250 per day, every day, no rest days. I am doing these in one grueling set, I find this very difficult, but I do it every day without fail. If I were not as strong I would do two or three sets to reach this number. 

I think I was largely irritated that a skinny unimpressive nothing guy like me was absolutely crushing his challenge, yet no one other than me was benefitting from it. Being skinny also means that I won’t bulk up, and if I entered this challenge no one would actually believe that I am completing the numbers that I am completing each day. So there is no point in me entering these challenges as no one would end up paying because they would assume I was lying.

If you are strong or ripped and you consider entering one of these challenges then I say go for it. Don’t just do the minimums though, absolutely crush the minimum.  

The same money will be donated, and you will get more benefit from it and maybe someone else doing the challenge will see your numbers and put in a little more effort themselves. Aim for a day minimum of 250, do more than your minimums, and complete over 6,000 push ups across the duration of the challenge. 

It is only 24 days, don’t bother with rest days. Try harder! Be more!

My Five Year Old is Stronger Than You

I have been doing prochnost' strength training for a while and have been getting a lot stronger.  Prochnost training is a great training system for skinny people (who lack the genetic ability to bulk up significantly) who want to get strong and be more capable.  Western training focusses on aesthetics, while prochnost' training focusses on building functional strength.

My kids have seen me training, and they often join in.  My kids are very strong, and are able to do many impressive feats of strength.  I love how humble they are.  They think everyone can do the things they can do, but very few other kids or even adults are as strong as my kids.

My five year old often feels like he is missing out when he watches his siblings do incredible things.  I didn't want him to feel bad so let him do some balancing on my push up bars.  

This is probably the skinniest five year old you will ever see, yet he can lift himself up and hold in this L-sit for an extraordinary amount of time.  This is great exercise for strengthening his shoulders as well as building his core strength.  He is doing this for fun and he is gaining great benefits.

I am a little jealous because he can hold this for longer than I can!  I don't know a lot of adults who can do 'L Sit' at all, let alone hold it longer than my five year old.  I am jealous of him, but also very proud.

Five year old doing 'L-sit' 

He giggles when he starts to wobble

As well as that he is trying to copy his siblings by doing various other holds and things.  He can't quite do what they can do, but he is only five and he is getting stronger every day.  

I am really proud of what he can do.  I sure wasn't doing this at his age!

Strength training for a five year old should be fun

My five year old is still a bit young to do any push ups, or at least I don't want him to do very many push ups yet.  I don't want him to do them and get injured, or not be able to do them and feel like he is worthless.

He watches me and his siblings do push ups and wants to join in.  He also watches us train to do elbow lever, and straight arm planch, and he feels left out.  I don't want him to feel left out just because he is still little so I try to find ways that he can feel included.

To help him feel included he holds onto push up bars with straight arms and someone holding his feet.  This is not push ups, it is a static hold.  For a skinny five year old this is pretty impressive.

Five year old building strength and having fun

  

This is helping him feel included, but it is also building strength and paving the way for him to do some of the more impressive exercises once he is ready.  I don't see any point in pushing things when he isn't ready.  At the moment he just needs to feel confident and important, he is also developing an enjoyment of strength exercises.  Exercise has been normalised for my kids, they find exercise fun. 

Do you train with your kids?  If you do you should be very careful not to over do it physically or you risk injuring the growth plates in their bones.  If you are not careful in the way you word things you may body shame them or make them feel inferior, which is the last thing you want as it will stop them from wanting to exercise.  Training for kids should be fun, they should be set up to succeed, and they should always have the option to stop when they have had enough.  

In this way they tend to reach their potential a lot faster because they enjoy this and actually want to train.  As they get older they should see exercise as normal and fun, and should never join the hoards of overweight and obese people that are so common in our country.  As they get older they will always be healthy and strong.

I hope that seeing a skinny five year old who can do this will help inspire someone to do some strength training.  Don't aim to be the strongest person in the world, because you will fail at that.  Don't aim to get shredded, because most people who aim for that fail due to lack of time and motivation.  Train to get stronger than you currently are.  Strength has a purpose, aesthetics does not.

Aim to be stronger than you currently are, be more!  Be strong - byt' sil'nym (быть сильным)!

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.