Power Pushups: Strength Becomes Power - THE EXPLOSIVE SIX - Explosive Calisthenics, Superhuman Power, Maximum Speed and Agility, Plus Combat-Ready Reflexes--Using Bodyweight-Only Methodsp (2015)

Explosive Calisthenics, Superhuman Power, Maximum Speed and Agility, Plus Combat-Ready Reflexes--Using Bodyweight-Only Methods (2015)

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POWER PUSHUPS

STRENGTH BECOMES POWER

It’s always been kinda ironic to me that when sports coaches think explosive, they immediately turn to lower-body work—box jumps, broad leaps, and the like. When I was in jail, convict-athletes were much more dedicated to upper-body explosive work...power pushups, pop-ups, behind-the-back pushups and triple claps were the order of the day. These moves gave those men arms like freaking jackhammers. It skyrocketed their power levels, maximized their speed, and also added slabs of muscle to their torsos and guns. This prison approach still makes a lot more sense to me. I’m not disrespecting lower-body work—you need to do those jumps!—but the upper-body needs survival power at least as much. Punching, blocking strikes, throwing, pushing—these techniques all require optimal power if they are gonna be devastating. If you want to knock someone out, your punch has to be explosive, and so does your upper-body. If you get attacked in a backstreet, nobody cares how high you can jump.

There’s a tasty bonus to having an explosive upper-body. Speed-power training is essentially training the nervous system and joints to handle greater loads. The more power you have in your arms, chest and shoulders, the stronger they become. And the stronger they become, the harder you can work them and the bigger they get. Calisthenics athletes who only ever perform their exercises in a slow gear can get pretty big, but a guy who mixes in high-speed work will definitely gain an edge in strength, and size too.

Bruno Sammartino was the greatest—and possibly beefiest—wrestler of the pre-steroid era. Like many old-school lifters, he recommended alternating barbell work and bodyweight sessions, and he was known as a huge aficionado of pushup movements. It sure didn’t hurt his power or size! Unlike the modern crop of drugger wrestlers—most of whom are dead or burnt-out by their fifties—Sammartino still looks incredible at the time of writing. And he’s pushing eighty.

Perhaps part of the reason why athletes on the outside are jumping over ribbons and zig-zagging through cones is that there’s a lack of knowledge when it comes to upper-body explosives. Yes, you sometimes see brothers throwing medicine balls around, but this is an inferior method—it has always been an inferior method. The balls are too damn light to trigger true changes in power. Sure, you can use heavy barbells explosively—push presses, jerks and what have you—but these methods typically focus on such high loads that speed is badly compromised, and true power is lost. Bodyweight pushups also prepare the athlete excellently for the open-hand springing-type movements (front handsprings, back handsprings) which are such crucial elements of acrobatics. There is also the fact that the heavy external lifts are definitely gonna wreck your shoulders over time. (Not to mention your wrists, elbows, upper back...etc). As ever, the best way is the natural way. Use your body, dude.

DECONSTRUCTING POWER PUSHUPS

It can be difficult to describe the perfect power pushup, because so many of the techniques vary. But we can discuss a few of the principles that cover the majority of moves in the technical chain which follows:

ELBOW POSITIONING

This is the first consideration. Where you put your hands is crucial, because the elbows follow the hands in closed chain exercises like pushups; and the shoulders follow the elbows. The secret, as ever, is found in what feels natural. Avoid extra-wide hand positions—they will not generate optimal power, and they place the shoulder joint in a vulnerable position. At the other end of the spectrum, always using a real close position can be too hard on the wrists, forearms and elbows if you are going explosive. Find somewhere in the middle that feels right to you. For regular pushups, I like a shoulder-width hand position, or slightly closer, to allow my elbows to brush my lats. For explosive pushups, most people find that slightly wider than shoulder width allows them to spring back hardest, allowing the elastic tendons of the shoulder girdle to absorb a little more force than the elbows.

Adrienne Harvey keeps it natural, aligned, and just perfect.

HAND POSITIONING

A few pointers on how to use the hands. Some guys with banged up wrists perform pushups on their knuckles—even the back of their hands. Trust me, trying this with explosive pushups is a recipe for a quick fracture. Even if your knucks are karate-strong, one bad rep can “turn” your hand on its side—like an ankle can turn during running—leading to a broken wrist. Keep your palm flat on the floor and spread the fingers a little; spread fingers act as shock absorbers, saving stress on the wrists and forearms; endeavor to spread the force as much as you can through the hands.

ALIGNMENT

This third point is a biggie. When you do pushups, you need to keep your body aligned—your thigh-bones, hips and torso must form a straight line. Your hips shouldn’t sag down, and—listen to me, brethren—your butt shouldn’t come up.

Now, most serious athletes seem to understand this fact when they are demonstrating standard pushup form. But when they start performing power pushups, it all goes out the window. Even on strong guys, the butt shoots up as soon as they push themselves up! This ungodly habit is called “worming” (sometime called the “caterpillar”) because it’s evocative of an inchworm pushing his little body up as he crawls along.

Always show the ladies your beautiful, elegant pushup alignment. Never show the ladies your worm. (Unless they ask.)

There’s a reason why this habit is associated with explosive pushups. It improves leverage and increases “airtime” (for claps, say) making all exercises much easier. Unless you are deliberately performing pike, jackknife or Aztec-style pushups, worming is a form of cheating and should be avoided. Never forget that you are performing your exercises to build freakish levels of power—not to demonstrate that power. Yes, to the untrained eye, worming may make it look like you can clap more times in between pushups. But you are only fooling the foolish. Strict form and an aligned body will build greater levels of explosive strength, faster.

Why would you cheat yourself outta gains?! I won’t have it—your training is too important to me.

STANCE

For slow, strength-based pushups, I always recommend a close stance—because close legs prevent cheating by twisting, so commonly seen in one-arm work. Explosive pushups are a different animal. For one, the higher speeds mean you need a more secure base; for another, asymmetrical exercises are much rarer in explosive work (they don’t exist in the power pushup chain at all), therefore twisting, and similar cheating methods, aren’t such a problem. For this reason, you do not need to keep your legs close together.

Grace nails the base!

In fact—within reason—a wide base is a good thing for explosive pushups. Somewhere between just beyond shoulder width and twice shoulder-width is going to be perfect for just about everyone. More advanced athletes—with superior balance—can apply a close stance. Experiment, Edison.

DEPTH

Another difference between standard speed and power pushups is depth—how far your chest descends on the negative. For regular pushups, a “full” range of motion is advisable—that means descending until your sternum is about a fist’s width from the floor. For power pushups, you don’t need to go that deep—you are looking for maximum strength-speed, and going too deep will slow you down. To train the joints and nervous system to maximum explosiveness, you really only need to go a few inches; maybe one-third of the way down. Think in terms of your arms “dipping” you down, rather than lowering you for a full negative. Experiment; if you don’t dip far enough, you won’t get enough spring to bounce back as high as you can; dip too low, and your tendons elastic force goes out of its comfort zone.

Nice, deep pushups are magnificent for building strength…

…but for speed and power, you don’t need to go nearly as deep.

MYOTATIC REBOUND

When you are performing slow pushups, a pause at the bottom is ideal—it generates huge strength and muscle. But if it’s power and speed you are working for, don’t pause at the bottom. Quickly dip down under the pull of gravity, and immediately blast back up, as fast as you can. Doing so will utilize the capacity of your tendons to express elastic force; it will also allow you to make the best use of your myotatic reflex. (For more on applying plyometrics, see page 315). Don’t think of this quick reversal as “bouncing”—think of it as “applying rebound”.

THE POWER PUSHUP CHAIN

The chain begins with the simplest, safest, explosive pushing exercise; incline pop-ups (step 1). The athlete can perform ballistic presses while in a semi-standing position. Once this becomes easy, we move to kneeling push-offs (step 2). These are much more explosive, yet require scaled down arm and chest power—plus less midsection strength—due to the leverage of the kneeling position.

With flat pop-ups (step 3), the athlete moves to the floor, continuing the basic pop-up movement learned in step 1. When pop-ups (which involve pushing a few inches off the floor with the hands) become easy, the athlete is ready to add a clap to the movement: the classic clap pushup (step 4).

Once the clap pushup has been mastered, the athlete should build to longer hand movements during “airtime”, which will necessitate a more powerful launch. Once the hands can be clapped easily, the next step is to slap the chest with the hands (step 5), then the hips (step 6). The most difficult variation is to clap the hands behind the back, as in convict pushups (step 7).

The next two steps prepare the athlete for the demanding Superman pushup, where the hands are thrown out in front, and the feet are lifted behind you, as if you were flying—hence the name. You begin by mastering the hands-out-front position with half-supers (step 8), then you learn to lift the legs off the floor at the top of the movement, a drastic variation which requires great strength in the trunk, plus total-body explosiveness. This is called a full-body pop-up (step 9). Once the half-superman and the full-body pop-up are developed well, the athlete can slot these two techniques together, lifting the legs off the ground with the hands thrown in front; this comprises the Master Step, the Superman.

This variation requires vastly more power and speed than regular clap pushups, which is the level most athletes stall at. Not you, though.

STEP ONE: INCLINE POP-UP

PERFORMANCE

· Find a solid, secure base that is around chest height.

· Place your hands on the base, at around shoulder width.

· Place your feet as wide as you feel you need to, for balance.

· Keep your legs, hips and torso aligned and slightly inclined towards your pushing base.

· Bend arms and shoulders, bringing your torso to a point several inches from the base.

· Immediately push explosively off the base, straightening your arms.

· Push hard enough to allow your hands to leave the base by several inches.

· As gravity reverses your movement, “catch” the base with your hands again.

· Use the elastic rebound to immediately repeat the technique.

EXERCISE X-RAY

Inclines are a perfect way to gently condition the shoulders, elbows and wrists for the harder work to come.

REGRESSION

A novice could begin explosive pushups at an even easier level, by pushing off a vertical wall; however since athletes should have some joint conditioning work under their belts before exploring explosive training (see page 24), this isn’t really necessary.

PROGRESSION

In all incline pushup work, the lower the base you push off—that is, the lower the hands and the more inclined your body—the harder the exercise. You can make things tougher by using a lower surface over time; begin with a table or work surface, then graduate to a bunk or bed, then a box, etc. A great way to make this exercise progressive is to use the bottom portion of a set of stairs or steps—use lower steps over time. Whatever equipment you use, you need to ensure it’s real sturdy; that applies to all explosive work.

STEP TWO: KNEELING PUSH-OFF

PERFORMANCE

· Kneel on the floor, with your thighs and trunk upright. Place your arms out in front of you, and keep them braced.

· Lean forward until your torso begins to fall; keep your thighs, hips and trunk aligned.

· Touch down with your palms at around shoulder width or slightly wider.

· Bend your arms and shoulders, dipping your torso closer to the floor. Stronger athletes can dip down all the way to the ground (see photo).

· Immediately push explosively off the base, straightening your arms.

· Explode upwards as hard as you can, keeping your thighs hips and trunk aligned.

· Stop yourself when you reach your initial kneeling position.

· Repeat the technique.

EXERCISE X-RAY

This movement requires a big jump up in the power stakes—believe it or not, some strong guys have trouble with kneeling push-offs at their first attempt. It’s not that they lack strength—it’s because they just don’t have the speed to turn that strength into power.

REGRESSION

It’s really cheating, but bending at the hips is one way to approach this exercise if you just can’t manage it. A better way is to incline your body by placing your hands on a base. Some athletes have found that it can help to get this “feel” of this technique by spending some time just performing the negative phase—falling to the ground onto the hands.

PROGRESSION

Once your speed kicks in, you’ll find that this exercise is achievable unilaterally—pushing off one arm. This is an exceptional way to build punching force. Some athletes can even perform this exercise (with two arms) in the classic pushup style—using their feet/toes as a pivot, rather than the knees. That should considered an extreme variation, however.

TIP: Bending at the hip will make getting vertical much easier—avoid it if you can.

STEP THREE: POP-UP

PERFORMANCE

· Squat down, place your palms on the floor and stretch your legs out behind you.

· Your palms should be below your shoulders, spread at shoulder width or wider.

· Place your feet at whatever width you are comfortable with; beginners should use a wider base, experts can go closer.

· Keep your legs, hips and torso aligned and horizontal.

· Bend your arms and shoulders, dipping your torso towards the floor.

· Immediately push explosively off the floor, straightening your arms.

· Push hard enough to allow your hands to leave the floor.

· As gravity reverses your movement, “catch” the floor with your hands again.

· Use the elastic rebound to immediately repeat the technique.

EXERCISE X-RAY

Pop-ups are a near-magical preliminary exercise for those brothers and sisters who want to get better at clap pushups (step 4, next). Many athletes are directed to perform clap pushups to gain upper-body power...and fail miserably, often crashing into the floor in the process. Pop-ups serve as a wonderful bridge towards the more difficult clapping version.

REGRESSION

This exercise is the basis of almost all explosive pushups, and the transition between regular (slow) pushups and power pushups (via pop-ups) is very simple. Just begin trying to increase pressing speed when you can. Eventually your hands will leave the floor for a tiny distance.

PROGRESSION

Pop-ups are a perfect exercise to begin generating the airtime that athletes need to be able to master harder plyometric variations, and this is how you should approach them—really use them to build height over time. In the early days, your hands will barely get clear of the ground; but with a little practice, you’ll be flying upwards.

STEP FOUR: CLAP PUSHUP

PERFORMANCE

· Squat down, place your palms on the floor and stretch your legs out behind you.

· Your palms should be below your shoulders, spread at shoulder width or wider.

· Place your feet at whatever width you are comfortable with; beginners should use a wider base, experts can go closer.

· Keep your legs, hips and torso aligned and horizontal.

· Bend your arms and shoulders, dipping your torso towards the floor.

· Immediately push explosively off the base, straightening your arms.

· Explode upwards as hard as you can, and while you are in mid-air, quickly clap your hands together—the clap should be audible.

· As gravity reverses your movement, return your palms downwards to “catch” the floor with your hands again.

· Use the elastic rebound to immediately repeat the technique.

EXERCISE X-RAY

Clap pushups are probably considered the classic upper-body exercise for explosive pushing power—and with great reason. Boxers, martial artists and football players have always known that this exercise build great levels of torso power and quick hands, whilst toughening the arms and shoulders.

REGRESSION

Begin with the hands close together and they travel less distance.

PROGRESSION

There is a pretty classic linear way to improve your clap pushups, once your form is impeccable. You know what I’m gonna say, right? Add more claps before landing! Many guys get so fast with their hands that they can do half a dozen claps, but this is more of a trick than anything—the hands look like they’re fluttering rather than clapping, and the airtime required typically encourages worming (see page 76). You are better off focusing on good, strong pushes and building up to a nice, audible double, and even triple clap. Beyond that point, focus on striking the body with the hands.

TIP: With all legs-extended pushups, a good way to increase intensity is to put the feet up on something. The higher your feet, the greater the proportion of bodyweight going through your arms.

STEP FIVE: CHEST-STRIKE PUSHUP

PERFORMANCE

· Squat down, place your palms on the floor and stretch your legs out behind you.

· Your palms should be below your shoulders, spread at shoulder width or wider.

· Place your feet at whatever width you are comfortable with; beginners should use a wider base, experts can go closer.

· Keep your legs, hips and torso aligned and horizontal.

· Bend your arms and shoulders, dipping your torso towards the floor.

· Immediately push explosively off the floor, straightening your arms.

· Explode upwards as hard as you can, and while you are catching air, whip your hands vertically upwards to slap your chest with your palms.

· As gravity reverses your movement, return your palms downwards to “catch” the floor with your hands again.

· Use the elastic rebound to immediately repeat the technique.

EXERCISE X-RAY

The degree of hand movement during the airtime portion of a power pushup is a great way to measure the amount of airtime you can get—and, likewise, the amount of airtime you can get increases in direct proportion to your upper-body explosive pushing power. This is why chest-strikes represent a significant step upwards in ability from simple clap pushups; the hands cover a greater distance. The biceps are also involved, and are forced to fast-twitch with lightning speed to snap the palms upwards.

REGRESSION

Begin by just lifting the hands towards the chest, before “catching” the floor. In time you’ll be able to slap your pecs.

PROGRESSION

It’s simple to progress from chest-strike pushups to hip-strikes. Once you have mastered the chest touch, move to touching your ribs; when that’s easy touch your obliques at the top of the rep. From there it’s not far to the hips.

STEP SIX: HIP-STRIKE PUSHUP

PERFORMANCE

· Squat down, place your palms on the floor and stretch your legs out behind you.

· Your palms should be below your shoulders, spread at shoulder width or wider.

· Place your feet at whatever width you are comfortable with; beginners should use a wider base, experts can go closer.

· Keep your legs, hips and torso aligned and horizontal.

· Bend your arms and shoulders, dipping your torso towards the floor.

· Immediately push explosively off the floor, straightening your arms.

· Explode upwards as hard as you can, and while you are catching air, whip your hands back to slap your hips.

· As gravity reverses your movement, return your hands in front of you “catch” the floor with your hands again.

· Use the elastic rebound to immediately repeat the technique.

EXERCISE X-RAY

Even powerful athletes, who can perform clap pushups fairly easily, can get their asses kicked when they try clapping their hands behind their backs during their plyo pushups. Hip-strike pushups are a killer bridging exercise between clapping in front of the body, and clapping behind the back (step 7).

REGRESSION

If you can’t reach the hips just yet, split the difference between the chest and hips and attempt to strike your belly.

PROGRESSION

The jump from hip-strikes to convict pushups (step 7) can be a pretty big one for some athletes. As ever, the key to making impossible calisthenics feats possible lies in multiple small steps. Once you can strike your hips, inch your hands back a tad farther over time, until you can touch the sides of your thighs. From there, work on throwing your hands up behind your hips—almost like a straight-arm kickback. Once you can get the hands up behind your back on each rep, bringing them into contact (convict pushups) will not seem quite so overwhelming.

STEP SEVEN: CONVICT PUSHUP

PERFORMANCE

· Squat down, place your palms on the floor and stretch your legs out behind you.

· Your palms should be below your shoulders, spread at shoulder width or wider.

· Place your feet at whatever width you are comfortable with; beginners should use a wider base, experts can go closer.

· Keep your legs, hips and torso aligned and horizontal.

· Bend your arms and shoulders, dipping your torso towards the floor.

· Immediately push explosively off the floor, straightening your arms.

· Explode upwards as hard as you can, and while you are catching air, whip your hands back and clap them together behind your back.

· As gravity reverses your movement, return your hands in front of you “catch” the floor with your hands again.

· Use the elastic rebound to immediately repeat the technique.

EXERCISE X-RAY

Convict pushups were considered a pretty staple power exercise in many jails. I’ve never heard this term on the outside, but behind bars we would sometimes call this exercise “convict” pushups because when you clap behind your back, your hands are (briefly) in a standard handcuff position. (If you don’t like the term, just think of them as behind-the-back clap pushups.)

REGRESSION

Don’t fall flat on your face when trying this the first time, brother. To get used to the unique rear clap technique, I’d advise trying this exercise kneeling first, in the manner of step 2 (page 82).

PROGRESSION

Some guys inside practically worship this exercise. I once knew a dude who could do a front clap, then a rear clap—twice—with great form, all in the same airtime! It’s even possible to add a fifth clap (to the front) before landing, but you need to be a pushup genius to make that happen. Quintuple clap pushups, anyone?

STEP EIGHT: HALF-SUPER

PERFORMANCE

· Squat down, place your palms on the floor and stretch your legs out behind you.

· Your palms should be below your shoulders, spread at shoulder width or wider.

· Place your feet at whatever width you are comfortable with; beginners should use a wider base, experts can go closer.

· Keep your legs, hips and torso aligned and horizontal.

· Bend your arms and shoulders, dipping your torso towards the floor.

· Immediately push explosively off the floor, straightening your arms.

· Explode upwards as hard as you can, and while you are catching air, thrust your hands directly out in front of your body.

· As gravity reverses your movement, return your hands in front of you “catch” the floor with your hands again.

· Use the elastic rebound to immediately repeat the technique.

EXERCISE X-RAY

Half-supers are named that way because if you do them right, half the body—the upper-half—achieves the “Superman” position (see opposite). Once you have nailed the Superman position with just the upper-limbs, the next step is to be able to nail the position with just the lower limbs—that’s step 9, full body pop-ups (page 96). From there, you just work on putting the upper and lower-limb actions together. Because the arms shoot out forwards, beyond the head, this exercise builds high levels of pure shoulder speed—useful for all you martial artists out there.

REGRESSION

I’d advise athletes to initially try this technique with just one hand out in front, on each side. When this is easy on both sides, experiment with the full version. You can also explore the kneeling version as preparation.

PROGRESSION

A harder variation involves clapping the top of the head after throwing both arms out front, when they are on the return journey prior to quickly catching the floor again.

STEP NINE: FULL BODY POP-UP

PERFORMANCE

· Squat down, place your palms on the floor and stretch your legs out behind you.

· Your palms should be below your shoulders, spread at shoulder width or wider.

· Place your feet at whatever width you are comfortable with; beginners should use a wider base, experts can go closer.

· Keep your legs, hips and torso aligned and horizontal.

· Bend your arms and shoulders, dipping your torso towards the floor.

· Immediately push explosively off the floor, straightening your arms.

· Simultaneously kick your legs out and up behind you, trying to keep your body aligned as you go.

· Explode hard enough with all four limbs to allow your hands and your feet to leave the floor at the same time.

· As gravity reverses your movement, “catch” the floor with your hands and feet again.

· Use the elastic rebound to immediately repeat the technique.

EXERCISE X-RAY

In step 3, you learned to pop your upper limbs off the floor in the pushup position; now it’s time for something much harder—popping all four limbs off the ground. It’s true that some previous steps (such as convict pushups) force the upper-body to push more explosively than this exercise, but full body pop-ups are an essential prerequisite skill to learn if you want to master the Superman—that’s why they’ve been placed as step 9.

REGRESSION

Begin by popping only three limbs off the floor—vary which limbs.

PROGRESSION

This exercise is much easier to do when worming (see page 76). The hardest way is to keep your body perfectly aligned. As you improve at the technique, keep pushing off higher and higher—check out how high Danny’s hips are in the final photo opposite.

MASTER STEP: THE SUPERMAN

PERFORMANCE

· Squat down, place your palms on the floor and stretch your legs out behind you.

· Your palms should be below your shoulders, spread at shoulder width or wider.

· Place your feet at whatever width you are comfortable with; beginners should use a wider base, experts can go closer.

· Keep your legs, hips and torso aligned and horizontal.

· Bend your arms and shoulders, dipping your torso towards the floor.

· Immediately push explosively off the floor, straightening your arms.

· Explode upwards as hard as you can, and while you are catching air, thrust your hands directly out in front of your body.

· Simultaneously kick your legs out and up behind you, trying to keep your body horizontal as you go.

· Explode hard enough with all four limbs to allow your hands and your feet to leave the floor at the same time.

· As gravity reverses your movement, “catch” the floor with your hands and feet again.

· Use the elastic rebound to immediately repeat the technique.

EXERCISE X-RAY

Sure, it looks as cool as hell. Sure, it’s a bodyweight feat virtually no athletes in a gym can replicate correctly (without giving themselves a hernia, at least). But the Superman is much, much more than a wicked-looking move. All true explosive exercises work the whole body—not just one or two areas—and the Superman is no different. Whereas regular pushups strongly work the anterior chain (the abs, hips and quads), to stop the hips sinking, the Superman also works the posterior chain (the spinal muscles, glutes, and hamstrings) to blast the feet off the ground. What’s more, it works both chains explosively, and in conjunction with the upper-body pushing muscles (the chest, triceps, shoulders) which become kung fu powerful and robust as a gorilla’s. If God has handed us a “perfect” explosive upper-body exercise, it might be this one, boys and girls. Go master it!

GOING BEYOND

Like jumps, athletes can choose to increase linear progression in power pushups; you just clap more often, or push up higher. Some athletes can push all the way from the floor into a standing position—although I’ve never seen this done with a perfectly aligned body. Most athletes—if dedicated, and not too heavy—should be able to master the negative, or eccentric version of this movement, which involves dropping down into a pushup position from standing (see page 316).

One simple way to add a twist to the Superman pushup is to spread-eagle the arms and legs at the top: this is sometimes called the X-jump pushup. This requires greater limb movement, therefore more airtime, but also more hip activation.

This is just one way of adding variety to the Superman. You can also explore hybrid versions, perhaps striking the chest mid-air, clapping behind your back, or even placing the hands behind your head. Once you’ve mastered the Superman, a whole plethora of ice cold power pushups open up to you.

THE AZTEC PUSHUP

Even tougher than the Superman is the legendary Aztec pushup. This involves propelling your hips so high that you can perform a toe-touch pike in the top position. It’s an incredible exercise but to my mind it’s less of a pure pushup, because it’s as much about waist power as upper-body snap.

THE CROSSING AZTEC PUSHUP

If the Aztec is too easy (what are you, a mutant?) you can increase the coordination requirements by touching your opposite hand and foot in the top position. This is the crossing Aztec pushup.

All progressive bodyweight masters understand that one of the best routes to maximize ability is to go unilateral—use just one limb! I know that for many a one-arm clap pushup (striking the chest, since the other hand is missing!) may seem impossible to some. Not so. If you’re Al Kavadlo, the impossible is always in reach!

For even more upper-body power, I’d also advise athletes to explore handsprings—front (page 156) and back (page 156) when they are ready. These really are high force (due to momentum) and high speed movements which will radically increase arm and shoulder power. But pushups should be your base!

SMALL SPACE DRILLS

Following are three useful speed and power techniques you can utilize in your routine for variety, as ancillary work or to train your muscles from different angles. They are all solo drills, and they require zero equipment. Unlike the progressive exercises in the chains, most of the following drills can be performed rhythmically for higher reps, and can work well when used with any of the chains in this book. In this sense, they can also work as warm-ups or finishing exercises in an explosives session.

PUSH GET-UP

From the pushup position, dip down and explode up, bringing your legs in so that you finish in a standing position. A great upper-lower body exercise, plus a brilliant preliminary drill for Aztec pushups, the push get-up is also the coolest possible way to get back on your feet after performing your pushups.

ROUND-THE-CLOCK PUSHUPS

This one’s a great move for building explosive endurance in the upper-body. Assume the pushup position, dip and explode up, but land with your hands about a foot to the side. Using your feet as a pivot point, continue this rhythmically—no pausing—until you’ve gone a full 360 degrees. You can do this clockwise, counter-clockwise, or mix and match.

360 JUMP

Fast hands and fast feet go together like biscuits and gravy! The 360 jump is simple and effective. Jump and spin, landing back where you started. If that’s too tough, start with 180 degrees (jump and spin facing the other way) and build up. Always remember to master both directions.

LIGHTS OUT!

Mastery of progressive calisthenics is like building an arsenal full of weapons. With the jump chain, you have everything you need to build superlative lower-body power. With the power pushup chain that followed, you’ve got the upper-body equivalent. These exercises will supercharge your nervous system, improve your reflexes, ramp up your speed and power, and strengthen your shoulders, hands, wrists, elbows, and even bones, turning you from a slow, clumsy “normal” into a lightning-powered cyborg, more than capable of approaching the advanced acrobatic moves necessitated by the remaining Explosive Six chains.

With time, effort and patience, the Superman is waiting for you. Now get to it, and go save Lois Lane.