Smashing Fifty Podcast: Episode 2
In this episode, I get a coach’s insight specifically about push-ups for men over forty. This post is an overview of the podcast and also includes few freebies to download.
Push-ups (or press-ups if you’re British) are probably the most common exercise for the home workout. However, the good old push-up is an easy exercise to get wrong if you’re not careful which can lead to injury or quite simply an ineffective workout.
Push-ups – Getting them wrong
For the last few weeks I’ve been smashing out a minimum of fifty push-ups every day as part of a 21-day-challenge, and although I’ve seen some really good personal progress, to begin with, there were a few things I was getting wrong.
First of all, my technique wasn’t good and I was allowing my elbows to flare out too far to the side which, although isn’t the end of the world, can lead to stress around the shoulder area.
Then, fellow Barcelona resident and friend, Anthony Bailey commented on one of my Instagram posts telling me that I needed to add a pull exercise to my routine in order to compliment all of the pushing I was doing.
Without a pull, I could be at risk of getting rounded shoulders (and mine are already pretty bad) as well as an unbalanced upper body.
Introducing, Anthony Bailey
As a professional personal trainer and nutritionist, Anthony seemed like the perfect person to talk to in order to get some proper advice on this, and so I made my move and scheduled a call.
Happily, he accepted 🙂
As a professional personal trainer with clients across the world and a thorough knowledge of his trade, Anthony, turned out to be the perfect guest for this podcast, and he now runs the Smashing Fifty Online Personal Training program with me.
He even agreed to throw in a few freebies – more on that below.
Anthony has been involved in sport his whole life. Running marathons, triathlons and studying different forms of martial arts for a number of years.
Before becoming a personal trainer in 2016, Anthony worked as a transport planner in the UK. He then had a ‘midlife crisis’ and decided to re-skill as a personal trainer.
That change in career also gave him the opportunity to leave the UK and move to sunny Barcelona, Spain.
About the episode
Push-ups for men over forty
In this episode, I speak to Anthony about how to approach push-ups the right way, and more importantly, how to ensure that you balance your push-ups with pulling exercises.
We discuss a few general fitness tips (including what he thinks of sit-ups) and he also makes an interesting point about push-ups that men over forty need to be aware of.
Anthony then reveals to me the ‘secret guide’ that fitness coaches use to measure the fitness of their clients. The test shows the number of push-ups you should be able to do in one minute based on your age and gender.
By the way, if you’re male and aged between 40 – 49 the numbers required to get above average might surprise you.
Download the free guide here.
As an additional bonus, Anthony sent me a simple, yet effective home exercise plan, especially for you. Download the free pdf by clicking the image below.
In today’s episode we talk about:
[4:10] The specific muscles that push-ups effect plus a few different techniques to try
[6:00] The difference between slow and fast push-ups
[8:20] How to improve your technique and arm position
[10:25] Introducing pulls to compliment you push-ups
[12:00] Pull exercises for the home without equipment
[15:10] What men over forty need to be careful of
[16:10] Rest days – do we need them?
[18:15] Ideas for additional exercises
[21:50] How many push-ups you should be able to do for your age and gender