The similarities between yoga and 0 Excuses Fitness…. end – HERE!
- And more - enjoy!

This afternoon, while working out at the park, an Indian lady was there before me.

My favorite spot was sort of taken, so I moved beside her, starting my stretches, then my pushups, then taking videos, and so forth.

She was doing yoga.

And she was doing a great, superlative job – especially given her BULK.

She was truly fat – yet, she was doing things most slimmer ladies that are truly unfit would be hard pressed to BEGIN to do.

I could, however, yet, almost feel her looking at me sideways – and asking me – “Wow, you’re in great shape” – as Marc the African Silverback Gorilla, who could knock my lights out in one shot and probably yours too, hehe once said about me.

“You’re in great shape, man! Keep doing what you are!”

And she would have no doubt asked, as others have – if I was doing yoga.

Indeed, although I have never taught yoga and dont plan on doing it, Marc said that too – I wouldn’t look out of place with my long hair as a yoga instructor!

Perhaps I could do it yes.

And yes, there are a ton of similarities between some of the movements I teach, and yoga – yet, which is better?

Conditioning and fat loss wise, I definitely believe and know – 0 Excuses Fitness is your ticket – strength and conditioning, there ain’t no contest.

Dont get me wrong.

Yoga does GET on deep breathing and stretches.

But fat loss?

Like Tai Chi ain’t exactly the best in terms of conditioning/preparing you for real world fights, so is yoga NOT the best for fat loss and overall weight loss.

It builds the bones, builds basic strength, has a ton of other benefits, but if you look at the scores of Uncles and Aunties doing it every morning (dont get me wrong, better than nothing) – and scores of people “walking to lose weight”, yet years later they never do, part of the reason it doesnt promote that heart thumping which really gets the butter burners going.

Surya Namaskars, for one (sun salutations) are superb, especially when done for reps, but they dont hold a candle to the Hindu pushups when the latter is done for high reps with the right form and breathing.

Ditto for most of the movements I teach.

They take yoga to a whole another level.

Sure, iyenegar yoga or whichever it is that makes you sweat like in a sauna, some of that gets the heart rate up, but thats different (ditto for cold weather training).

ANyway, lady was doing great!

And I would have told her, hey, dont cut yourself short on the pushups.

And “I used to be just as big as you!”

Hey, she was doing perfect headstands too – she deserves the encouragement.

With that, a couple of questions I’ve been asked.

One, and this has been asked many times, can ladies do pushups – and follow my teachings in general.

Damn skippy they can – especially on handstands, pull-ups – movements a lot of women do BETTER than the bulked up men out there.

(not that proper bulk is  detrimental – fat and gym built bloat is).

NEVER sell yourself short based upon gender or genetics. Other than the regular pushup, MOST of the pushups I teach are just as suitable for ladies as for anyone else and even the regular one is if you work up to it properly.

Second, an interesting one from J in NEwark.

About using pushup handles.

Should he, or should he not?

This guy lifts weights right.

He’s a mountain of muscle (just goes to show you I’m not against lifting weights right – hey, I wouldnt write Lumberjack “Lodestone” Fitness if I was!).

It’s the booby building I hate, and no I did not coin that term.

A famous bodybuilder back in the day did, anyway handles?

Well, interesting one, J!

I did a video today about how to strengthen the wrists beyond belief with pushups and three types of pushups specifically targeting the wrists.

For someone with naturally small girl like weak wrists, someone with an even weaker right wrist weakened even by falls out of buses and such (hey, no-one taught me which leg to land on when jumping out of a running bus!!) – to someone with a bonafide kung fu like Gorilla Grip that puts men thrice his size to shame, well, I’m qualified to talk about that!

They’re great.

If you’ve got wrist problems, they help and strengthen the grip a lot – like knuckle pushups done right do – because they give you an extra grip workout while you’re at it. They also allow for a more solid stretch at the bottom part of the pushup which is awesome.

But, I prefer doing ’em on flat hands – and fingertips.

Id rather BUILD my wrists up – and then do these – or do both – but not one or the other, that said, if you’ve got painful wrists from years of weight lifting, then DO use handles until your tendons strengthen to the point you can do them on fists, fingers, or otherwise without pain!

Last, but not least, the DIP, and how far to go – after my recent videos on dips, people have asked me that too.

Go down as far as you can go, as I’ve always said.

Those of you with pre existing injuries, work up to the stretch. Go slow. But never think you cannot do it, or it should not be the goal, a full stretch on everything you do should always be the goal.

Well, my friend, lots to digest there.

Have at – I’m off to digest a well earned meal shortly!

Back soon.

Best

Rahul Mookerjee

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