STRENGTH SENSEI BOOKSHELF
600 Push-ups: 30 Variations
How to master this time-tested upper body conditioner
If you want to learn how to do push-ups, one of the obvious choices would be to ask a military drill instructor. The author of 600 Push-ups is just that: Bob Weinstein, Lt. Col., USAR-Ret. Weinstein was a senior military instructor with the US Army Command.
Weinstein is a popular inspirational speaker and has written several military-based exercise books, including Boot Camp Six-Pack Abs, Boot Camp for Women, and (a book with three titles) Weight Loss – Twenty Pounds in Ten Weeks – Move It to Lose It.
Recently, push-ups have gotten a lot of attention in the fitness community when a Harvard study on the exercise and its association with cardiovascular disease (CVD) was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on February 15, 2019.
This was a 10-year study involved 1104 active firefighters. The researchers concluded: “Significant negative associations were found between increasing push-up capacity and CVD events. Participants able to complete more than 40 push-ups were associated with a significantly lower incident CVD event risk compared with those completing fewer than 10 push-ups.”
The purpose of the book is to achieve maximum muscular endurance. The title of the book comes from a challenge to perform 600 push-ups within 60 minutes. After a brief introduction about the history of push-ups, some benefits of push-ups, and Army standards, you get into the bulk of the book: push-up variations.
Although the book is titled 600 Push-ups: 30 Variations, it actually contains 31 variations, as follows:
- Regular or military push-up
2. Knee push-up, 45 degrees
3. Knee push-up, 90 degrees
4. Incline push-up
5. Wall bouncing push-up (no photos)
6. Wide push-up
7. Triceps push-up
8. Four-count push-up
9. Hindu (Dand) push-up or dive bomber push-up
10. Fingertip push-up
11. Break-dance push-up
12. Plyometric push-up
13. Push-up with dumbbells
14. Spiderman push-up
15. Grasshopper push-up
16. T-push-up
17. One hand elevated push-up
18. Lizard push-up
19. Swiss ball push-up with hands elevated
20. Swiss ball push-up with feet elevated
21. Medicine ball push-up
22. Scorpion push-up
23. Full planche push-up
24. Rolling dumbbell push-up
25. Hand stand push-up (no photos)
26. Clap push-up
27. Hip push-up
28. One-arm push-up
29. Four-man push-up (no photos)
30. Leaping frog push-up
31. Flying frog push-up
Each variation contains a photo of the start and finish of each exercise (with the author wearing boot camp outfit, including dog tags!) The photos are large and get the job done – after all, these are push-ups, not the Olympic lifts.
Having so many variations is valuable because just performing push-ups can be boring, especially in physical education programs and the popular boot camp group fitness classes across the country. Also, most the exercises require no special equipment (although there is a variation, such as one using a Swiss ball and another with a medicine ball) and can be performed at home or while on the road.
True to its promise, the book outlines a 10-week plan to achieve 600 push-ups. Each week the total reps increase, from 85 during the first week to 600 on week 10. The variety comes in the number of sets performed.
The bottom line is that this book will teach you how to do a lot of push-ups and will show you some interesting variations of this popular exercise. It’s not a complete exercise program by any means, but it’s a handy reference, particularly for those who teach physical education or general fitness classes. (TSS)
[You can purchase 600 Push-ups by Bob Weinstein, Lt. Col., USAR-Ret at amazon.com]
