Pushups Around the World

If you want skip the P.A.W. back story, click HERE to go straight to the routine.

On Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 an idea popped in my head while doing a intense chest and back exercise routine. At the time I was doing a routine that was somewhat of a hybrid of my own stuff and P90x. As a student of P90x, one of the amazing things is you build this immense strength that allows you to be quite imaginative in regards to new ways that you can “push your body” for maximum intensity. I mean…even when I went to San Fran for business and I was doing a short workout routine in my hotel room and I found my mind wandering with thoughts like..”Hey, I wonder what would happen if I curled that chair at the desk”…”Hmmm..maybe I can dead-lift this king size bed and get a workout out of it”.

However, one of my favorite curl routines is strip set curls. You can practically “strip set” any exercise and it’s starting out with a heavier weight and working the weight down as you do each set. In the case of strip set curls, I could start with 25-30 pounds dumbbells and max out my reps with that. Then move on to 20 pounds and max out my reps with that. Then 15 pounds, max out, then 10 pounds. No breaks in between. As soon as you hit your last rep, you move down to the next weight. If you’ve never done a strip set routine you might be saying to yourself. “What? 10 pounds, anyone can do that”. Yes, under normal circumstances if you started with the lower weight, it would be quite effortless. But when you do a strip set routine and max out on every weight, by the time you reach the lowest weight your body is screaming from the burn, pain and muscle exhaustion.

“Pushups Around the World” or P.A.W. is a simple strip set pushup routine. Basically you start with several difficult pushup up moves in a decline position, then move down to several moves in the incline position, then move to several plank pushups, and finish off with knee pushups. I would not advise doing this routine in the beginning of a workout. Strip set should be done at the end of your workout routine. It’s what I like to call a “closure”. You close with something that you can push every last drop of energy into and then your done.

Equipment:

1. Two equal height chairs
2. Two yoga blocks
3. Pushup bars
4. A big ole object to place on the chair to get to a deep decline pushup. I used a small and sturdy suitcase but you can use whatever you have available. Just make sure it fits firmly on the chair and it’s sturdy.
5. Exercise mat (optional)

The P.A.W. Routine:


1. Deep decline diamond pushup
Grab your chair and place your firm object on the chair to get a deep decline. In the diagram to the left, the hand position is a standard shoulder length width. In my routine I start off with diamonds. Diamond pushup are pushing together your hands until your pointing and index fingers touch, including your thumbs. Once you put your hands together, it should look something like a spade (think deck of cards) or diamond. Your hands should be positioned right below your chest area.

2. Standard decline shoulder-length pushups (pushup bars)
Remove the big ole object and continue to max-out on declines with just your feet raised on the chair and using a set of pushup bars.

3. Standard decline shoulder-length pushups
Maintain the same arm and hand position, but remove the pushup bars.

4. Standard incline pushup (yoga blocks)
Still using your chair, grab your second chair and place each yoga block on the inner left and right side of each chair. Place each hand firmly on each yoga block and go for it.

5. Standard incline pushup
Maintain same incline position, but now remove the yoga blocks.

6. Plank diamond pushup
Remove both chairs and go into a plank pushup with a diamond hand position.

7. Wide plank pushup (pushup bars)
Go into a wide length plank pushup with pushup bars. Keep your wrists facing forward, with your fingers wide apart. You can adjust how wide you want to go (try not to go too wide or you’ll tip over your pushup bars), but about two hand widths outside your shoulder should suffice.

8. Shoulder length plank pushup
Go into a shoulder length plank pushup without pushup bars.

9. Shoulder length knee pushup
At this point your arms should be on fire and you are probably begging for it to end. Try to end with a big finish on this one and push until you feel smoke coming off your arms and chest.

Conclusion:
Well that’s it. Keep in mind that you can mix and match hand/arm positions on any one of these moves from P.A.W. The above “closure” works for me, but you may want to throw in some one arm pushups, plange pushups, or even a “T-pushup” . The P.A.W. routine is pretty flexible, but as long as you maintain a “strip-set” pattern going from very difficult to easy, you should be good to go.

Props to my boy Elastic Dragon (TJ) for hooking me up with pushup graphics. Homey you did an amazing job.

Other posts in this series

1. What You Need to Know About P90X (April 14, 2010)
2. P90x Diaries: Today is Day 90! (May 29, 2010)
3. Pushups Around the World (This post) (July 25, 2010)
4. Chunk Your Workout (June 21, 2011)

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