Build your muscles, save your eardrums

If you spend a lot of time in gyms, like me, you occasionally see lifters who seem to think that the more noise they make, the more muscle they build. Thus, they clank dumbbells overhead on every repetition of the dumbbell shoulder press. Think about it: You build muscle by working against the forces of gravity. If gravity isn't providing any resistance, there 's no work for your muscles to do. And the final part of the " clank press" involves no gravitational resistance whatsoever. You could hold two metal things overhead and bang them against each other for hours on end, until you either burst your eardrums or got shot by your neighbor who works third shift and sleeps during the day. But if you lift weights straight overhead, you're working against gravity through the entire range of motion, which makes a lot more sense, for your muscles as well as your eardrums. Dumbbell push press GET READY • Grab a pair of dumbbells and stand holding them at your shoulders, as described above. DESCEND • Bend at the knees and hips, as if you were about to jump. LIFT • As you snap your hips forward and straighten your knees, use that momentum to push the weights up off your shoulders. You should come all the way up onto your toes. DESCEND • Lower the weights to your shoulders. Alternative You can do this exercise with a barbell, if you prefer. The action is the same one I described for the second half of the front squat/push press on page 1 80. Fully loaded This is a combined strength-and-power exercise, which means you want to use a bit more weight than you'd be able to lift on a standard shoulder press. You also want to move the weights faster. They may not actually move faster, especially as they get near the top of the lift, but the key is to try. PUSH-UP VARIATIONS This exercise is unique among the presses, in that we include five different versions, and invite you to choose the one that's most appropriate for the required repetitions. They're listed here from easiest to hardest, and your goals are pretty simple. First, use harder variations when the workout calls for lower reps , and easier variations for higher reps. Second, try to move up to harder variations from workout to workout, so if you start off doing the 45-degree push-up when the workout calls for 10 reps, try to advance to the 3D-degree push-up in subsequent l O-rep workouts. You'll notice that we don't use the push-up from the knees, the traditional variation pawned off on the "weaker" sex. Alwyn doesn't like it because it takes the core out of the movement. Your midbody muscles get a break when you cut yourself off at the knees. When your weight is resting on your toes and hands, and everything else is in play, your core muscles have to do the work they' re designed to do. GO-degree push-up (not shown) GET READY • Find a counter or similarly sturdy surface that allows you to form a 60-degree angle (more or less) when your chest is at the edge of it and your feet are perhaps thirty-six inches back. (If you're in a commercial gym, you can use the bar of a Smith machine-it's the barbell-on-rails device-for this or either of the next two variations.) • Set your hands on the edge of the surface, with your arms straight and about shoulder-width apart. • You want your feet back about thirty-six inches from the surface, hip-width apart. • Your weight should be balanced on your toes and hands, with your body forming a straight line from your ankles to your neck. DESCEND • Lower your chest to the surface, keeping everything else in the same alignment. • Keep your elbows in, next to your ribs, rather than allowing them to flare out away from your torso. LIFT • Push back up to the starting position. 45-degree push-up GET READY • Find a sturdy object that's about hip height, and set up on it as described above. Your feet will be back a little farther from your hands this time, due to the angle. DESCEND • Lower your chest to the bench, keeping the rest of your body in the same alignment. At this point, your body should be at about a 45- degree angle to the floor. • Keep your elbows in, next to your ribs, rather than allowing them to flare out away from your torso. LIFT • Push back to the starting position. 30-degree push-up GET READY • Find a bench or box that's sturdy and stable (it will support your weight and won't slide out from under you) and about twelve to fifteen inches high. • Set your hands on the edge or the surface, whichever seems to offer the best support. • Align your body as described above. DESCEND • Lower your chest until it's an inch or so above the surface. • Keep your elbows in, next to your ribs, rather than allowing them to flare out away from your torso. • Pay attention to your body alignment-the lower the angle, the more of a core exercise it becomes. LIFT • Push back up to the starting position. Push-up GET READY :\, I • Position yourself on the floor, with your weight resting on your hands and toes . • Your hands should be about shoulder-width apart. You can move them closer or farther apart for comfort, although you change the emphasis of the exercise if you move them within a few inches of each other or significantly widen your spread. The former works your triceps harder, while the latter works your chest more (and is probably a bit tougher on your shoulder joints) . • Your body should form a straight line from your ankles to your neck. Your back should still form its natural S-curve, and of course your gluteals will rise above the line. The key is to have a line that's a straight shot from your ankles to the base of your skull, neatly bisecting your torso. DESCEND • Lower yourself until your chest is two to four inches from the floor (with apologies for thinking like a guy, the size of your chest will help determine your range of motion here) . • Keep your elbows in, next to your ribs, rather than allowing them to flare out away from your torso. LIFT • Push back up to the starting position. It's actually okay to exaggerate your range of motion at the top of the movement; it's a good workout for the serratus muscles on the sides of your rib cage. T push-up GET READY • Set yourself in the push-up position described above. DESCEND • Lower yourself to within a few inches of the floor. LIFT • As you push back up to the starting position, twist to your left, so your left arm ends up straight over your right, and your body and arms form a T. Your weight will all rest on your right hand and the side of your right foot (your left foot might not come all the way off the floor, but it also won't support your weight in this position) . • Let your eyes follow your left hand, so you're looking up at it in the top position. DESCEND • Twist back and lower your left hand to the floor, so you're back in the starting position for the classic push-up. • Lower yourself again. LIFT • Twist to your right as you raise yourself, so your right arm ends up pointing toward the ceiling, and your weight is on your left hand and the outside of your left foot. • That's two push-ups. You need to do an even number of twists to your left and right in each set, which means that if a set calls for 5 repetitions, you have to extend that to 6 if you're going to use the T push-up.