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Workout: Day 14
Time for some upper body pushing again, so either do it at home or head back to the park and use the park workout portion we used on Day 7:
Park bench push-up
The park bench push-up is great for women as some find it challenging to do a push-up flat on the ground and maintain good form. Using this method reduces some of the gravitational force because of the easier angle, but it’s still a great exercise. As you can see in the link above, they are using the sitting part of the bench, which makes it more challenging. If you put your hands on the backrest portion, which is higher off the ground, it becomes easier.
Here are some tips on technique:
- Feet firmly planted and hip-width apart.
- Engage those core muscles and keep your body aligned.
- Make sure you have a firm grip on the bench. You don’t want to slip and be in for some costly dental work.
- Breathe in on the way down and out on the way up.
- Don’t go too quickly or too slowly. One to two seconds each direction is great.
- Try to keep some tension on the muscles and don’t use much in the way of inertia.
- If you can do more than 12 then it’s too easy. You need an angle that gets your face closer to the ground to increase the resistance.
- Shoot for each set being in the six to 12 range.
We’re going to add to this with some additional bench hops in between your upper body sets. Here is a video showing how to do them. These are hard, so ease your way in. It doesn’t have to be a park bench, but just a sturdy setup like the one shown in the video. Research shows that getting out of the house and away from things like the TV, phone and your kids (if you can) is highly motivating, so if the weather is nice then why not take this workout outside (even take the kids along if anything).
You thought I was going to tell you to walk too, didn’t you? Wrong. It’s time to start integrating a little faster footwork in if you want to make the most out of this month.
If you’ve never run before, don’t fear. I know it’s hard because I made the transition too and I don’t want you to be a bag of pain afterwards. So you’ll still do the regular walk, but every 100 metres or so I want you to break into a slow jog until things become uncomfortable. Go until you’re getting winded, then slow back down to a walk to recover. Repeat until you’ve had your fill.