Happy April fools weekend!

I have to say, the real fools these days are the people who don't workout and work for what they want. If you just keep working for it, eventually you will succeed - don't give up.

This month there's a new article about loading up on carbs to improve your performance, and my reflections on doing push-ups every day for 30 days after New Years. Check them out, and I'll see you in the gym!

The pain of discipline or the pain of regret. Which will you choose? 

~ Craig Ballantyne

1) Carb Loading to Improve Your Performance

How to do carb loading, or carbohydrate loading, to give you more energy for your athletics.

2) Top Submission: Farmers Walk Exercise?

Can you provide more information on the Farmers Walk exercise? Aaron's Answer… Sure! I really like that exercise; it's simple and really blasts your...

3) Daily Push-ups: How They Worked For Me

So, I did daily push-ups for 30 consecutive days right after the New Year. And it was very fun, but there were some definate drawbacks.

First, it felt good to stick to such an intense schedule. Even though it was physically hard, three sets of push-ups and the rests in between were relatively easy to do. It only took about 10 minutes.

And, I was able to increase the number of push-ups I was doing in each set significantly. For my first set (the one where I was freshest and did the most) I started out being able to do just 25, while after 30 days I was unto 53. Yessss!

The one major drawback was the inadequate rest time to let my muscles recover. While I did get stronger, and psychologically I got stronger because I was doing something difficult every day, my muscles could have really used a day or two off to recover - especially toward the end of those 30 days.

So, if you're trying to increase you pushups I think...

(1) You should give yourself 2 - 3 days of rest between you push-up days, so that you will make progress, and...

(2) Do 3 sets. The first set will be your really intense 'do-more-push-ups-than-last-time' set, while the others serve to bring your muscles to the breaking point. And fully fatiguing your muscles and bringing them to the point of utter exhaustion is what really counts, when you're trying to have your muscles make gains.

While I'm pleased that I made gains doing push-ups every day, I really think that more rest time in between would help. The rest time is even more important if you're lifting weights at the gym, playing sports, and/or doing other intense physical stuff like I am.

Give regular push-ups a try, and I'd love to hear feedback from people who tried 30 days of them!

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Train hard, do your best, & see you next month!

~Aaron

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