Convict Conditioning: How to Bust Free of All Weakness Using the lost Secrets of Supreme Survival Strength

by Paul Wade

A couple of fast sets every few workouts will be good for athleticism and variety. But despite this fact, the majority of your pushups should be done relatively slowly; for a count of two seconds down to the bottom position, a one second pause, and two seconds back up to the top position before immediately descending again.

There are two reasons why you should try to cultivate this kind of steady pace. Firstly, smooth technique develops higher levels of pure strength. When you move explosively, you inevitably rely on momentum during some portion of the movement. If momentum is doing the work, it means your muscles aren’t. It’s also far easier to cheat when you perform a motion quickly. We’ve all seen people “bouncing” out of the bottom position of exercises, because they lack the pure muscle power to move themselves.

Secondly, human joints adapt much better to regular movements ...

To determine how much pressure you should touch with, we had a saying in prison; kiss the baby. If your upper chest (for example) touches a baseball at the bottom of the pushup, it should only make contact with the amount of force you would use to kiss a baby on the forehead. No more, no less. This technique of pausing briefly at the bottom of a pushup removes any momentum and builds excellent muscle strength and control. It’s why I advocate a one second pause at the bottom of all movements.