Everyone CAN Do Pullups- Here's How

Pullups are the squats of the upper body and not much else can match making you stronger in that body region. Pullups are said to be one of the absolute best exercises you can do- if you can do them.

You cannot substitute other exercises for pullups such as rows and lat pulldowns because they just won't do the job; however there are some progressions you can work on until you can perform a few more than 1 or 2 true pullups. Even if you cannot budge yourself from the grips of gravity don't fret. These progressions are made for everyone to perform.



1. The first progression and one of my personal favs is the Jumping Pullups.
Jumping Pullups imitate the actual form of a true pullup as long as you use your arms as much as you can rather than rely on the leg momentum. This is also a good heart rate increaser as well because you are using full body movements.

Setup and Technique: Stand in front of the pullup bar. If you can touch the bar and are able to bend your legs into a quarter squat then you are good to go. If not then you may need to get a short step, chair, bench, phone book, or Madona's stilletos to get you to the correct height position. You want to get yourself so that you are at the beginning pullup position which is your arms at full hang. (Every rep needs to have your arms return to the full hang or it is not a properly completed rep.)
Then use your legs to aid in your ascent. Jump only enough to aid your upper body in pulling you up so that your chin gets above the bar. It's ideal to get the collar bone to the bar if you can. Perform 10-20 or even more reps depending on your training program. Use your upper body as much as you can so that it continues to get stronger and pretty soon you can remove the jump element out of the equation.

2. Another progression is using a Smith Machine, Squat Rack, or even a Universal Pullup Station machine.

Setup and Technique: Position the bar so that it's at chest or ribcage level. Then lean back and perform what's called "Supine(or laying face up) Rows". It will look like you are doing a reverse pushup with your body facing upward toward the ceiling. Your legs will be together and you will be on your heels with the soles of your feet off the floor completely. Your legs will be extended and your arms will begin perfectly straight. Then simply pull your body up to the bar so that your chest touches it. The more horizontal you are the more difficult it will be. The more vertical you are the more easier it is. So that being said if you can only do 10 in a certain position don't stop there, but simply get more vertical and keep going and going until you've reached your desired rep.

3. A third progression is using a stretch band.
Jump Stretch makes a great "Assisted Pullup Package" which consists of 3 bands (1 Strong, 1 Average, and 1 Light) that are perfect for all pullup fitness levels especially if you are just starting out.

Setup and Technique: The setup is very quick and simple. All you do is attach the band to the chin-up bar by slip-knotting it around and then insert one of your feet through the loop in the band. The band will assist you as you pull yourself up by taking some of your weight off your arms and placing it on the bar. I really like this method and it really works well even with kipping*.

*Kipping is a progression beyond these which involves a slight hip swing. Kipping is very useful for high rep pullups after your body has been fatigued with strict pullups.


My recommendation is to first start with the Jumping Pullups and just know this is a systematic progression protocol to building overall great physical strength. Regular practice of these progressions will soon have you performing full, unaided pullups, but the key is practice. No matter if you can do zero right now just using these progressions alongside a smart and stable strength or fitness protocol you will succeed at achieving the body you desire.

We Wuv Watermelon!

Watermelon Agua Fresca
8 cups cubed seeded watermelon (about 6 pounds with the rind), divided
1 cup water, divided
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 liter (4 cups) club soda or seltzer water, well chilled
Lime slices for garnish

1. Combine half the watermelon and half the water in a blender; puree. Pour through a coarse strainer into a large container. Repeat with the remaining watermelon and water. Stir in lime juice. Refrigerate until well chilled, about 4 hours.
2. To serve, stir in club soda (or seltzer) and garnish with lime.

NUTRITION INFO: 10 cups. Per cup: 20 calories; 0 g fat; 3 g carbohydrate; 1 g protein; 1 g fiber

Watermelon Salsa
3 cups finely diced seedless watermelon (about 2 1/4 pounds with the rind)
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
1/3 cup chopped cilantro (about 1/2 bunch)
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup minced red onion (about 1/2 small)


Place watermelon, jalapenos, cilantro, lime juice and onion in a medium bowl; stir well to combine. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

NUTRITION INFO: 8 servings, ½ cup each. Per serving: 26 calories; 0 g fat; 7 g carbohydrate; 1 g protein; 1 g fiber

Watermelon Slush

3/4 cup cold water
6 cups watermelon chunks (4-pound watermelon), seeded
2 tablespoons lime juice

1. Place watermelon and lime juice in a food processor; process until smooth. Set a sieve over a large bowl and press the puree through to remove tiny seeds.
2. Pour the watermelon mixture into a shallow metal pan and freeze until ice crystals form around the edges, about 30 minutes. Stir the ice crystals into the center of the pan and return to the freezer; repeat every 20 minutes until all the liquid is frozen.
3. Serve immediately or transfer to a storage container and let harden in the freezer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Serve in chilled dishes.

NUTRITION INFO: 12 servings, ½ cup each. Per serving: 27 calories; 0 g fat; 8 g carbohydrate; 0 g protein; 0 g fiber

Source

Fighting Childhood Obesity Starts With All Parents

While the adults have fun at Kettlebell Kamp Brayden sits or plays by the wayside peering in on the wonderful things we do to be active. Of course we couldn't just leave him without having some of the fun too.

Here is a collection of Brayden Garon highlights.

To go along with Brayden's cool demos here's a good one that I did recently and recommend you giving it a shot as well.
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Warmup:
3 Min. Double 3lb. Sledgehammer Combos

Workout: 5-10 Rounds of the following:
5 Kettlebell Clean & Presses/Jerks with a heavy bell
30 Heavy Swings barely making 30.

Try to get this workout done inside of 20 minutes.
_____________________________________

I always like to finish my workout with either a quick set of 4-5 short sprints and/or 20-30 min. of Synergy Flow which is my own specially designed yoga sequence that we do at Kettlebell Kamp. My personal version is a bit more ellaborate than our Kamp cooldown.

No matter what you do be sure to do something active every day. Bring your kids with you. Don't bother tossin them in the daycare. Workout with them. Teach them how to be active and how to have fun at the same time. Have a set time, at least 15-30 minutes every single day for this fun family exercising activity time. If you need tips and advice I would be honored to assist.

Remember the obesity stops with us. We control our children's future. We are their leaders. Lead them by leading yourself!

Paprika Shrimp and Green Bean Saute

This comes to under $2 per serving!!! :)


Here is the yummy recipe:

4 cups raw green beans (about 12 ounces)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh minced garlic
2 teaspoons paprika
1 pound peeled, raw wild caught shrimp (21-25 per pound)
2 16-ounce cans large butter beans or cannellini beans, rinsed
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, divided
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Optional: 1/4 cup red-wine vinegar



1. Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a large saucepan. Put green beans in a steamer basket, place in the pan, cover and steam until tender-crisp, 4 to 6 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and paprika and cook, stirring constantly, until just fragrant but not browned, about 20 seconds. Add shrimp and cook until pink and opaque, about 2 minutes per side. Stir in beans, optional vinegar; cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, about 2 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup parsley.
3. Divide the green beans among 6 plates. Top with the shrimp mixture. Sprinkle with pepper and the remaining 1/4 cup parsley.

NUTRITION INFO:
6 servings. Per serving: 245 calories; 8 g fat; 26 g carbohydrate; 23 g protein; 8 g fiber

Saltiest Foods To Dine Out On

Here are some of them and I will be adding more as I come across them. Feel free to add to my list, by commenting below, so that others may benefit from our collaborated knowledge.

4. The saltiest side-dish: Denny's smoked ham. One slice packs 1,700 mg of salt. At 85 calories per slice, that's a lot of sodium per calorie.
3. The saltiest "healthy" food: Chili's Guiltless Grilled Chicken Platter, with 2,780 mg of salt. Don't be fooled by terms like "guiltless." The calories and fat may be lower, but salt and sugar may be added to jack up the flavor.
2. The saltiest bread: Dunkin' Donuts Salt Bagel, with 4,520 mg. This should be a heads-up for those that have never thought about salt in bread products.
1. The saltiest dish in America: Macaroni Grill Chicken Portobello, with a whopping 7,300 mg. That's three times the recommended amount for a day!

Timeless Strength Training For Outdated Organizational Testing

After talking with a few of my friends and clients who are testing for positions such as police departments, fire departments, military, and other government positions it is quite evident by some of the physical evaluation drills they have them performing are very much non-functional and very impractical to the actual physicality of the daily job duties. This is also the case with much of the country's sports training- mainly football. They look at how much a prospective applicant and/or athlete can Bench, Squat, Situps, and Run for distance. Most of these are with a one rep to three rep max. Most of these movements are not even performed in the line of duty.

Football is notorious for performing a lot of bench pressing and squatting. When in football is anyone on their back pressing someone or something overhead? Well if they are on their back it is usually when the play is stopped. Additionally squatting needs to be done very explosively in most real-life and athletic events. Practicing slow or moderately paced squats with either both sub-maximal or even maximal weight will not transfer over very well into explosive power. If you want to be explosive you must practice explosive movements. Honestly it is very unfortunate that the tests even call for bench to be performed. That tells absolutely nothing for someone's overall strength. It uses some of the body's smallest muscles to perform that lift.

Besides when in your duty as a police officer or firefighter, or any job for that matter, are you lying on your back pushing something overhead? Alright, alright I'm sure we can find a suitable bench press simulating movement in the Las Vegas area, but let's keep this one clean in the sense of what jobs require that sort of movement and stay on track. Additionally you can be in very crappy shape overall and still have a good bench number. See what I'm getting at here?

If there is no way around not testing on the bench press then I would not focus so much on actual bench as in the supportive lifting that will accompany it. Of course you must practice benching to get better at it, but not so much to overtrain. Two to three times per week is adequate for the actual performance of bench when working toward the goal of testing and then simply work harder at the supportive lifting. Then after you reach your goal and pass your test forget practicing bench. It isn't life practical and functional fitness.

For these sorts of individuals, or any who desire to become overall stronger in natural raw strength where pressing movements are concerned, I would recommend to focus on practicing several variations of pushups including handstand pushups(against a wall if you need to). If you cannot perform a HSPU then bend your elbows and hold there for a given time. Focus on overhead pressing, push pressing, and jerking dumbbells or kettlebells if you have them. This will make you very strong, fit if done properly, and bring up your bench without ever directly focusing on bench.

Handstand Pushups or Inverted Pushups work the entire shoulder structure. Don't think in terms of what muscles does this or that exercise work. Think in terms of movement and how you can get your body to move more efficiently and get stronger in each movement.

The same muscles that perform a bench press perform in pushups, handstand pushups, and any kind of pressing movement. Muscle isolation training and body part separating need to be stopped and forgotten for this will never lead to real-life fitness. Your body should be trained as a unit because that is how you use it in life. When you exercise, go to the gym, or perform any weight resistant movements that is how you should imitate it. This is exactly why I call my training Synergy Kettlebell Training. We use the kettlebell as our primary resistance tool, but in the end it is just a tool that we use and the overall movement is what truly matters. Ask any of my clients and they'll tell you that I can care less how much weight you can lift or survive a grueling session, but the focus is on the movement even if it is without anything except your empty hand. I am a firm believer that if someone cannot properly perform a given movement with just their bodyweight many times over then they have no business using weight in that movement.

The following movements will produce amazing upper body, as well as core and lower body, strength by practicing them in your workouts regularly.

Press is moving a weight overhead with the use of the arm to a lockout position without the assistance of the legs.

Push Press is moving a weight overhead with the use of the arm to a lockout position with a little bit of assistance from the legs by performing a very slight knee bend(squat) to generate momentum in order to allow the arm to work less to get the weight up. This is great when the shoulder and arm is pre-fatigued.

Jerk or Push Jerk is moving a weight overhead with the use of the arm to a lockout position with a much more leg assistance by performing a coordinated double knee bend(squat) to generate a lot of momentum in order to allow the arm to work less to get the weight up. The Jerk is great for overall strength and core connectivity in synergy within your body. Combine the Clean and Jerk for both push & pull in one movement. This is the ultimate in strength training.

Peeling Away Conventional Produce

The question is always being asked and considered regarding budgeting for food cost. Should we buy organic or should we save a couple bucks and buy conventionally grown foods? My quick answer to that is how much do you value your health? We only get one chance to keep ourselves healthy and it definitely takes constant effort and a little bit more money, but every ounce of energy put forth and every extra penny is entirely worth the investment in yourself. Simply because you may not have any symptoms or be overweight does not mean you are healthy. You can get lypo to spot reduce body fat nowadays, but that procedure does absolutely nothing to increase overall health. Also there is no honor in paying for a procedure like that. The honor lies in putting in the time and great effort by being active and attentively adhere to healthy eating habits. If you cannot do that you are just being lazy- plain and simple.

If you don't know how to do that then educate yourself so you will know. There are many resources available to you, but allow me to encourage you to be very discerning and do your homework. Don't just believe everything you hear or read because the media and food industry does a very good job with propaganda according to their own financial agenda. Ok well of course if it comes from a good lookin bald headed kettlebell fitness coach, such as yours truly, then it's certainly fine. Just kidding... I would even encourage you to continue expounding upon what I write as well.

Now let's get back to the topic of quality food choices and purchases. In the U.S. we actually spend less of a percentage of our paychecks on food than many other countries. There was a recent study conducted on the Private Consumption Expenditure of food costs within a home.


The study examined 51 countries, home to 2.5 billion of the world's 5.8 billion people, to compare spending and consumption patterns and how they relate to income. International comparisons indicate that, in general, the richer a country is, the smaller the share of PCE its citizens spend on food. Of the countries included in this study, the United States spent the smallest share of its PCE on food at home, only 9 percent, while Tanzania, with the lowest per capita income, spent the highest share, 71 percent.

High-income countries consume larger amounts of costly meat and fish, dairy products, and processed foods. France consumes the highest share of meat and fish, which account for 19 percent of daily calorie consumption. In the United States, meat and fish account for 16 percent of daily calories. Annual per capita meat consumption is only 40 pounds in Algeria and 89 pounds in Mexico, nowhere near the 223 pounds in France or the 264 pounds in the United States. Meats are not the only dietary difference among countries. People in Algeria and Mexico, for example, consume almost twice the amount of cereals per capita that U.S. residents do, but only half the amount of vegetables. Milk consumption in the United States is 2.5 times that in Algeria and Mexico.

When thinking of regularly purchasing and consuming organic foods it is something many people pass up simply because they believe they will be spending too much. By saving a dollar here and there can actually negatively effect your health. Take this very, very serious because it IS very serious. I am not just some health fanatic ranting on about what I do. I could hoard all my secrets and just let the rest of you suffer and not be healthy, but I desire to keep everyone informed. There is much more to the food than simply being cheaper in cost. In reality many of the organic foods have come down in price which is similar to that of conventionally produced.

By choosing to consume conventional produce you are deciding to ingest very, very toxic chemicals. These same chemicals are spewed out of propaganda from agencies such as the FDA to be safe. If they were safe then why are there so many internal illnesses and hormonal imbalances among our population? Each of the conventionally produced crop gets a hefty sharing of pesticides, fungacides, herbacides, and fertilizers. All of which contain MSG which many of you already know is very unhealthy. All of these chemicals are very estrogenic which means your estrogen hormone gets extremely elevated after every time these foods are consumed and in doing so you suppress your GH levels alongside Testosterone as well. When estrogen is elevated you store more fat, retain more water, and are not mentally balanced.

Even by peeling the layers it will not prevent you from ingesting the chemical fertilizers that have been sucked by the plant roots and embedded into them while growing. The herbacides, fungacides, and pesticides also do penetrate much deeper than skin deep. All of them contain MSG and none of them are ever worth the risk.

The real question is: Can you afford NOT to regularly buy organic.

If you've read my blog long enough, have emailed, Facebook Messaged, and/or trained with me then you'll know the eating protocols I advocate. I don't want to get into all of it again here, but will be writing more in upcoming articles. I have put many folks on this sort of eating plan and have had success. The complaints I hear are the gasps to eating so much at night. Most people are fine with eating nothing or very little during the day. At first they THINK they NEED to eat during the day only because they have been doing it for so long. Once they try it the right way they see that it's not only possible to practice, but they feel amazing very quickly too. Then the only road block is getting them to eat exactly what they need to be eating in the evening. It all must be simply balanced. No case study or trial or clinical evaluation will every convince them of anything in that regard. Trust me I've shown them all, but the proof must be in the pudding of their own experiences.

If you drink the right amounts of water during the day your fast will be very manageable and you will feel amazing. That's the key.

Source of study: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3765/is_n3_v19/ai_19498742