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Welcome to Day 3 of the BWF Primer Build-up!
Hey Folks! Nick-E here.So now you should hopefully understand WHY exercise works the way it does, and have had 2 sessions now to work on your push-ups. So now we will be adding in a new exercise!
Today we will be:
– learning about how to do Rows (or an alternative exercise),
– and then doing a workout comprised of push-ups and rows!
Today’s Reading: How to do Rows (Or what to do if you have nowhere to do Rows!)
Now that you’ve had 2 days to practice the push-ups, it’s time to try a new exercise! The Row is a natural pairing with the push-up for well balanced upper body strength, because it trains the opposite muscles to the push-up.
Row Guide
Important to note: Even though the video is demonstrated on a straight bar, the form explained in the guide is more or less universally applicable for rows performed under:
– A sturdy dinner table (demonstration)
– Gymnastics rings (demonstration)
– A sturdy, straight bar of any kind (demonstration is in the guide)
– Bedsheets knotted in the top of a door! (demonstration)
– TRX Straps (demonstration)
If you don’t have access to ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING to row on, a potential short term stop-gap would be to try Reverse Push-ups at a corner between two walls. They’re not a great substitute for rows and have very limited scope for progression (you’ll get too strong for them eventually), but as a short term solution to help to maintain some level of muscular balance they’re not too shabby!
Reverse Push-ups Guide
Workout #3:
As mentione above, this time we will be doing two exercises. The push-up, and the inverted row (or the corner reverse push-up)! Like with the push-ups, we will be starting doing 5 reps of the rows/reverse pushups. But for the push-ups, we will add yet another rep! However, we will be doing fewer sets.
Workout:
| Exercise | Sets/Reps | Rest |
| Push-ups | 4×7 | 60s |
| Rows (Or Reverse Push-ups) | 4×5 | 60s |
Now that we have two exercises, we will be doing them in order, so your workout will look like this:
7 pushups, 60s rest, 7 pushups, 60s rest, 7 pushups, 60s rest, 7 pushups, 60s rest, 5 rows, 60s rest, 5 rows, 60s rest, 5 rows, 60s rest, 5 rows.
Rather than:
7 pushups, 60s rest, 5 rows, 60s rest, 7 push-ups, 60s rest, 5 rows, etc. etc. etc.
This order we aren’t doing is a concept called ‘supersetting’, which can be a really useful tool if you want extra rest between sets of the same exercise but need to save time. However, we want to keep the rest duration at 60s for this program.
Ok, I did it!
Congratulations!
If you want to chat about your experience so far, I’ve set up a new ‘beginners zone’ in the /r/bodyweightfitness discord server, so you can come chat with other new exercisers in a friendly environment, with friendly helpers with experience with exercise that have volunteered to answer any questions you may have!
Cheers,
Nick-E
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