Okay, I know you've heard of the one minute push up challenge, but that's not what this is. With the one minute push-up challenge, you set a stopwatch and go for as many pushups as you can in one minute. It's pretty straight forward, and it's an awesome test of endurance and basic strength.
The one minute push up, however, is a completely different beast. The one minute push up is what you do to train for an arm wrestling contest with the Incredible Hulk. This is what Arnold Schwarzenegger did when he wasn't being born fast enough to make it to his first Mr. Olympia competition.
The one minute pushup takes elements of isometrics and combines them with heightened muscle tension to trigger rapid hormone release and flood red blood cells into your biceps and shoulders. It's almost isometrics, but not quite. It's the ultimate slow release, high intensity bodyweight workout that improves muscle endurance and fiber tension.
Equipment
To do the one minute pushup, you need:
1- A stopwatch
2- Your body
Begin by getting into the pushup position.
Place the stop watch on the floor right below your head so that you'll be able to see it for the whole pushup.
Start the stopwatch and do one pushup. Here's the trick though: the pushup has to take the FULL minute. That's 30 seconds down, 30 seconds up.
Make sure you don't rush the part where you're at the bottom of the pushup; make it one full, fluid motion with the same speed the whole way through.
Try to do one. If you can do one, go for two. If you can do two, go for three, etc, etc. Make sure each pushup lasts for the full minute, and keep the proper form the entire time.
How many can you do?
The one minute pushup stems from isometric exercises, which is when you contract the muscle but keep your joint in the same position. Instead of keeping the joint stationary though, we're slowly changing the angle of the joint while keeping the same level of tension in the muscles. It's what I like to call “delaymetrics.”
There are a lot of exercises for athletes that you can use to keep in shape (plyometrics being my favorite) but this gives you a different level of intensity to change the pace a little bit. Try it; you'll be surprised at how challenging it is.
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