The Pyramid Pushup routines

Many have asked me how to avoid gaining weight during the quarantine. The question often comes from people that are used to routinely go to the gym. In this video I will describe my pushup pyramid routine from easy to intense. I will reveal the secrets of going from 10 to more than 1000 pushups in your daily routine. I will tell all about the Pyramid pushup routines. In this video I will demonstrate how get started with your pushup routine. Then I’ll show how transition from a few, easy pushups to various levels of intensity, depending on your physical fitness. The secret is in the pushup pyramid. With it, you will progress quickly from an easy inclined pushups to an intense, full range routine. Remember this, when I started my routine I was obese and could hardly do a few easy inclined pushups. Now I do more than 1 thousand of the most extreme pushups. I was never inclined to do much exercise in my life. But once I started to do my exercise while fasted, I discover an endless source of energy: My own body fat. I strongly recommend that you train while fasted, eating only One Meal a Day (or OMAD).

Finding your maximum pushups in a row

To get started on the road to hundreds of pushups a day, let’s find out what you can do now. What is the maximum number of reps you can do in a row? In the video, I show a max of 10 pushups in the easy inclined position. Use the staircase in your house or apartment or use a chair or sofa for support. Divide your max pushup count by 2. If your max is 10 reps in a row, you should be able to do a pyramid of 5. If you can do 12 reps, you could do a pyramid of 6, and so on. I will refer to a pyramid with a maximum of 5 reps as a pyramid of 5. In it, the reps are increased like the steps in a pyramid until reaching the max of 5 pushups. Then you step down to 4, 3, 2 and 1. Note that you take breaks with arm motions that correspond to the number of pushups in the step just completed. This may help the circulation to your arms and chest, setting you up for the next pushup.

Multiple Pushup pyramids

One pyramid of 5 immediately more than doubles your total reps from 10 to 25. However, you could do several more pyramids during your daily workout. Start with a pyramid of 5, then take a five minute break, and the repeat and break until completing 4 pyramids for a total of 100 pushups. Don’t get overly ambitious, take your time to build on your pyramids slowly. You don’t want to be in pain the next day and miss your next workout. You can also try 2 pyramids of 5 and 2 pyramids of 4 at first. Whatever works for you. Little by little you could increase the number of pyramids or the number of replicates per pyramid. You will be surprised by the exponential growth of your replicates with the pyramid. Soon enough you will be occupying up to 1 hour of pushups, and ready to increase their intensity.

Intermediate Level

When the exercise in the staircase does not seem too challenging, you may want to move to the flat floor. Don’t do your routine in plain floor or even carpet, this may cause injury in your knees and hands. I use interlocking foam exercise mats to comfortably go from pushups to the kneeling position. I also use 2 yoga mats to avoid hand and feet injuries. For this least demanding of pushup level, I use a towel. Notice that at the bottom of my pushup, my forehead touches the towel. Your hands should be at shoulder level. This is not full range of motion, and therefore only moderately intense. With time and training, I was able to do regularly 1600, 2025 and on occasion 2500 pushups in a single session. These were pyramids of 40, 45 and 50 respectively.

Ready for the next level

If you ever get that high, it is probably time to move to a more intense approach. Your routine becomes more endurance and less intensity when you do so many replicates for more than one hour. To increase the intensity, all you need to do is to increase the range of motion. Then you can reduce the number of reps and thus decrease the time working out. To do that, I remove the towel. At my lowest point in the exercise, my nose and my belly touch the yoga mat, but my chest is still a couple of inches over the mat. In addition, my hands are spread out at shoulder level. This is significantly harder, and intense. With this new approach, I was able to do 1225 routinely as shown in my previous video. This routine takes around 80 minutes and it is completed with a pyramid of 35.

Next advanced level

Remember, you can always start at a higher level, if you wish, doing multiple pyramids of 5, 6, or 10, depending on your fitness. Next, to increase the range of motion, I support myself on dumbbells. This raises my body about 2 inches. In addition, you’d notice, I am pushing my body forward. At my lowest point, I touch the floor with my chin and my chest as well. This is a more intense exercise, for which I am training myself. Again, I use the multiple pyramid approach to complete a 1-hour workout. I can comfortably do pyramids of 8 to 10. This pushup routine is particularly demanding on your chest and triceps, and even affects your abdominals.

When to workout

How many times a week should you workout? Is it important to take a break for recovery? I believe that it is important to do some kind of exercise every day. In normal situations I do hiking 2 times a week and my pushup routine 5 times a week. But with the quarantine situation, I have been doing pushups every day.

Using the Perfect Pushup

To further increase the range of motion, you can use the perfect pushup equipment. Further, you can use rotation as an additional form of complexity. It is said to engage more muscle groups, but to be honest I have not gone as far as using rotation at all. This will certainly be a way for me to increase my pushup complexity in the future. Increasing intensity is important because High Intensity Interval Training, particularly when done in the fasted state promotes autophagy. This is the intracellular recycling mechanism that favors your immune system and helps prevent infectious diseases. Please be sure to watch my other videos about One Meal a Day because it is an integral part of my performance achievements at my age.

Narrow Pushup

Pushups already engages a variety of muscles in your body, from your shoulders to your legs. Another way to increase intensity and engage other muscles is to reduce the distance between your hands. Using a small bench, I can reduce the range of motion just a little, while increasing the intensity overall. If you have difficulty keeping your balance, you can spread your legs and finding support like a tripod. This approach engages your back a little more. Once again, you can start with a small pyramids until you gain confidence. When I begun to lose weight using the OMAD regimen, I felt that my body demanded more intense exercise. I knew then that walking for over 90 minutes was not going to do it. The pushup pyramid provided the High intensity interval training my body was craving.

The Pushup pyramid changed me

The pushup pyramid has changed my life. With pushups I was able to grow my upper body muscles and finally remove those unmanly man-boobs I hated. Building strength goes beyond physical appearance, though. The intensity of the pushup pyramid, should encourage growth hormone and testosterone production. These hormones are important for vitality at my age, and any age for that matter.