Tuesday, February 2, 2016

BR.TV Intermediate BootCamp Week 3, Day 1: STRENGTH WEEK! Zuzka's Lifted Butt Series #14

Well if you follow this blog at all, you'll know that I love strength work, so this will be my favorite week of the boot-camp, I'm sure!

Today was with Lisa, and a fairly good routine of push-ups, squats, lunges and sandbag swings. Not a bad combo of exercises.
Lisa looks reallllly GREAT in this video.
But I cannot skip mentioning how awful her form looks on push-ups. I've seen various comments in various places about her push-up form. Being on camera, I do not understand why she has not fixed her form!!! I don't get it. All trainers should know the correct way to perform a push-up. Let alone wearing the vest if you cannot do them right. As I said the workout was great, Lisa looks SO GOOD, but the push-ups need some fixing - IMO.



Notice the difference between these 2 pictures. Lisa's head is not in line with her spine - you do not lead with your chin or your hips, but your chest. Her elbows are flaring out and they should be angled backwards and tucked in slightly towards the ribs. There is a dip in her low back, so she needs to engage her core more. Can you guys see this or is it just me because I'm an anal trainer ? :) 

Anyways, I look forward to this week's strength routines.

Zuzka also posted her latest Lifted Butt Series:

Side lunge deadlift x 10/10  with beast 20/20 with medium
Standing side leg lifts (pulses) x 40/40
Forward / backward lunge with medium size kettlebell x 10/10
One Leg weighted bridge x 40 alt.
One leg elevated squat with DB x 10/10
Froggers on exercise ball x 20
One foot elevated backward lunge knee up with dumbbells x 10/10 x 2sets
Wide stance weighted hip raises x 20
Wide stance weighted hip raises at the top x 20
Kettlebell Swing x 20 with Beast or 40 with medium
Standing side leg lifts (pulses) x 40/40
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2 rounds for time
A pretty good leg workout, but I definitely liked the one from last week better. This is actually a great glute workout. The only thing I'm not a big fan of is the standing leg lift pulses. If you do 40 on one side it is a lot harder to do the other side as the muscles there are already fatigued from holding you in place. I would do another exercise - perhaps an upper body or abdominal exercise in between sides. But that's me! :) 


10 comments:

  1. You aren't being anal at all about Lisa's pushups. Whenever I've wanted to start working out in the past I've always started out by just doing pushups, glute bridges, and assisted pullups. I am not strong at all, but I've always been able to do about 4 pushups from my toes with my elbows flared out the way Lisa does them. After reading strong curves I'm determined to fix my pushup form. Having your elbows out in a T formation is a totally different exercise from having your amrs and body in the nice arrow formation. I had to regress all the way to doing inclined pushups from my knees off my couch. I got up to about 20 of those, so now I'm doing them flat on the foor from my knees and can only do 4. For me flaring out of the elbows compensates for weak triceps and shoulders. I'm trying really hard to improve it and it's humbling.

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    Replies
    1. Once you learn them the proper way and then try to do them with your elbows flared out, it will just feel wrong. It over stresses the shoulder joint as well.
      I love your insight! And good luck for working so hard. It will pay off!

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    2. I agree...the exercise becomes much harder with proper form. After working out with Bodyrock (back in Zuzka's day) for about 6 months, I was so proud of my "strength", until someone told me I was doing my pushups all wrong. It almost felt like I had to start from the beginning when I did them the right way...but boy did I see progress in my arms!
      Lisa's form is painful for me to watch. I actually grab the back of my neck when I see her cervical spine anteflexed like that. I'm glad you point that out because her bad form seems to go unnoticed by her legions of admiring fans.

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  2. I noticed the other day that zuzka's push ups looked awesome the other week. Lisa's push ups before she ever had her boobs done, when she first started at body rock were so much better than they are now.

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  3. I totally agree with Leila f.....if you view Lisa's videos when she first started at Bodyrock (I guess pre-boobs) she really kept her elbows tucked in and called them "press ups" instead of push ups. Her form was spot on....her form now does need improvement.

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    Replies
    1. Well I just watched these 2 videos from Lisa - both performing push ups AFTER surgery, both done on the same day, but she does them very different ways.
      I am not sure WHY as the form is far better in one of the videos than the other.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHjHYjkxPEc (bad)

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28u8Jmu9d84 (good)

      Delete
  4. 50 sec of push-up, it's way too long for me AND it's no fun at all...

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    Replies
    1. Ha, ha, not fun, but can be a worthwhile exercise! :)

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  5. Hey! I have a question regarding Lisa's push ups. I totally can see what you mean about her form in this pic re: her neck, not leading with chest etc. But what confuses me is the hand placement. I always thought that her type of push up in that pic (elbows not tucked towards ribs) placement focused on chest whereas the pic you showed focuses on triceps? I am trying to improve my push up form so greatly appreciate your guys insight in this. Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Lexxie. You can keep your hands widened like Lisa has the pic above, but the elbows should not flare way out to the sides like that - they should still be at a backwards angle. The wider your hands, the more stress on the shoulders and pecs, the closer, the more on the triceps.

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