Stew Smith Fitness News

I often receive questions from people who are trying to substitute pull-ups with other similar exercises that work the same muscle groups. This gentleman asks:I am always trying to add muscle and do not have access to a pull up bar or lat pull down machine. I work out at home and have dumbbells. What is an alternative exercise to pull-ups in your opinion.First of all, one thing I always do no matter whether I am traveling or at home is to go for a jog near a school district and search for any playground that is open to the...

Of all the exercises, the one with the largest mind game attached to it is the PULLUP. One thing I have learned is that women AND men CANNOT do pull-ups IF they do not PRACTICE pull-ups. On the flip side, the common denominator among those men AND women who can do dead-hang pull-ups, are those who practice pull-ups.Personally, one of the worst things we ever developed in physical fitness classes were the "girl pullup" or flexed arm hang. At an early age, we have been telling young girls, that they cannot do regular pull-ups because they will never be as...

The Pull-up is the great equalizer when it comes to hard exercises to master. Questions from how to do more, how to do any, how to ace pull-up fitness tests come in all the time. Over the years, we have created and used many workouts (like the ones below) to improve pull-ups, but one of the first elements you should consider before doing pull-ups is: How much do you weigh?I had an email the other day from a 30 year old man who is 270 lbs and can do 9-10 pull-ups. Naturally, I am impressed because when I put on...

            If you take a look at one of the pyramids, you will notice that it is numbered on both sides. It goes from 1-5 on one side, with the number 6 on the top, and then 5-1 on the other side. Each number represents a step in the pyramid. Your goal is to climb the pyramid all the way up, and all the way back down. So you can consider each step a "set" of your workout. At the bottom, you will find "pullups x 1, pushups x 2, situps x 3". What this...

Every year, I have the honor of exercising with America's Heroes of Tomorrow bright and early at the Naval Academy during a one week course called Summer Seminar. At 0530, Tuesday morning I exercised with over 700 motivated High School seniors who are more than likely to become Midshipmen in the Class of 2009! The goal of the workout is to show the future Midshipmen that PT can be a stress reliever NOT a stress increaser IF they arrive prepared for the daily grind of military/boot camp style of physical training. Military PT is the one stress you can control...