For years I've been posting some crazy challenges for a group of friends I used to train with. w I'm doing this to combat the boredom that threatens our fitness lifestyle.
Regardless of your dedication or fitness level, we all know that no matter where you train, sometimes it can get a bit monotonous. Hopefully this week's challenge can help break the monotony - it's one of my favorites I've done over the Thanksgiving holiday: the one-legged, one-armed hop and press challenge.
This week's challenge: Single-Leg / Single-Arm Hop and Press
Important instructions: Jump off your left leg as far as you can, land on your right and pin the landing. Drop into a right leg/left hand push-up position and perform a push-up with one arm on one foot. Get into a standing position, making sure not to touch the ground with your right hand or left foot throughout the movement. Turn around and repeat the opposite!
Why try this? Because you've seen too many Avengers movies and want to test your superhuman abilities! This is a fairly difficult test of strength relative to your body weight and ability to control how your body moves through space.
Where you will feel it: The explosive "jumping" muscles are primarily the calf muscle groups, quads, glutes, and traps (trust me, if you jump enough, your traps will be sore!). Your entire core/column is challenged as you struggle to stabilize yourself in a plank or push-up position - reinforced by the proprioception of performing the task on one arm/one leg. And the upper body pressers (abs, tris, and delts) need to be firing hard to perform a one-handed push-up.
Here's how to build on it: This is an advanced move! Take it to pieces: First, the "bound and land" can be trained with all kinds of lower-body strength work. Of course, be careful if you have injuries, especially when trying to land on one foot. Stabilizing one hand and one foot is challenging. You can build this type of strength with various plank exercises, hanging leg raises, and other core work. Finally, the pushing force required to do a one-arm push-up is harsh. I recommend dumbbell and kettlebell presses because they help build unilateral strength. Also, it's important to note that the heavier your body, the stronger your pushing muscles need to get!
That's it. Enjoy responsibly and have fun beating yourself up! Let me know how it goes: @andywhatsnext.
