The #1 way in which people cheat themselves out of the benefit of bodyweight exercises.
- Form, in case you had not guessed!

I see this so often, my friend – and I was debating whether or not to write about it again, but I had to.

Its what you guessed, form, but more than that – “full extension” is where people really miss out – Ive seen a lot of so called fitness gurus claim “full extension” is harmful for the joints, tendons etc – when the reverse is true.

And therefore, here are some home truths from the bodyweight exercise guru – again – I dont know who needs to hear this, but here they are –

Its not a real pushup if your form isn’t immaculate (ie back straight, body tight in a plank position,no you do NOT look down, you look straight ahead while performing the exercise (most of the styles, at any rate)) and chest isn’t touching the floor on each rep – and if you aren’t pushing ALL The way up.

Lots of people dont go down all the way, which is cheating yourself, the further down you go under control, the more it works your muscles – simple as that (and the ligaments, the stretching part).

Even more people think they go all the way up, but they dont – a LOT of you stop short of a FULL lockout, which is a mistake.

All the way up, all the way down – same thing for pull-ups.

If your chin isn’t over the bar (bare minimum – ideally Adam’s apple touching the bar) – its not a proper pull-up, if you’re not starting from a dead hang, its not a proper pull-up either.

Kipping, poor form etc – all that goes without saying.

But it’s the full extension either way a lot of people miss, my friend-  and you’re missing out on some real strength benefits from the movement if you skip this part of it.

Squats – same damn thing, should be ass to grass, not “thighs parallel to the floor”.

Some of these things, when you first start out, might be incredibly difficult for you, so doing what you can, and going from there is good – but if you’ve been doing these exercises a while my friend, if you claim to be “fit” – then there is no way you can break the above rules and claim that same thing – you simply are not in that case.

And any fitness instructor or “in the know” person worth his or her salt will tell you the same thing – no matter how grudgingly.

If you claim you do “plenty of or enough cardio” – but you’re either fat or rail skinny with very little strength – then what you do either isnt working, or you dont do it all, period.

If you’ve got a huge belly hanging over your pants and claim “I’m big but not fat”, the only person you’re sort of fooling is yourself, not very successfully at that …

The last two were home truths I know.

But pay attention to the full extension part when doing bodyweight exercises, my friend – the goal should always be, with the possible exception of dips – to go full extension of most of everything you do.

I dont know who needed to hear this … I bet many do.

Anyway.

Follow the 10 Commandments of Physical Succcess laid out in Fast and Furious Fitness, and in a different style in 0 Excuses Fitness.

And you cant go wrong, period.

And thats that – back soon.

Best

Rahul Mookerjee

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