I’ve written about this before. Mastery of any exercise.

ANY exercise, no matter how simple.

And I’ve devoted a whole chapter to this very important topic in 0 Excuses Fitness.

Most skip right past it, but hey, big mistake right there.

Ever hear people say, for instance that “pushups are easy! Pooh!”

Well, my friend, did you know that easy or not, the easiest or toughest or not, MASTERING, truly so, any exercise is an ART UNTO ITSELF?

And something most people do NOT accomplish, no matter how accomplished they are.

Bruce Lee being one.

Despite his obvious physical skills, this man would be the first to tell you the above, as he constantly worked at improving the basics (particularly fingertip pushups in his case).

You may not ever get to the point that Lee did which was popping off sets of ONE finger pushups (50 reps/set) in front of goggling audiences and onlookers.

But do you have to get to those extreme levels?

NO (not unless you want to).

You can gain all th strength, muscle and CONDITIONING you need for your ENTIRE LIFE by mastering, really so, the basics!

Let’s take the basic pushup.

The REAL basic stuff.

Can you, for instance, do ONE pushup that takes you FIVE minutes to do cumulatively up and down, and maintain perfect form while at it?

Or, can you pop off 100 perfect ones in a row?

Or, can you do 10 sets of 10 pushups followed by 10 sets of 10 pull-ups with very little rest?

Or, can you do 1000 pushups daily (many boxers do)?

Or, can you . . .

. . . ah, but you get the drift my friend.

There is always a way to make it harder and more challenging. TRUE MASTERY is something the masters will tell you themselves that is nigh on impossible to get to, because we are always challenging ourselves and improving!!

Even if you answered yes to all the above, guess what.

Can you knock of 100 pushups in a set in perfect form with a minute break at the bottom of each pushup?

And so forth.

You get the point!

And adopting this mentality in your training will not only make you as close a “Master” (or “Mistress” as the case might be! ?) at the exercise as you humanly can be, but will also build WORLD Class levels of strength and conditioning to boot.

Yours truly likes to, as I’ve said before focus on a LIMITED number of main exercises per workout.

And for now, and for a few months now, for me it’s been rope jumping and pull-ups.

Sometimes you have no other option but to do the above, and other times (like now) you DO, but in both cases, focusing on less and really HAMMERING it is better.

In all regards.

Believe me, when your cranking out 2000 plus reps on the weighted jump ropes without a break in record time . . . or even without a break, period, you’ll know what I mean by the above!

Or when Animal kingdom workouts seem like nothing even when you combine them with 100 pull-ups per workout . . .

Or, . . . you get the picture!

Mastery, my friend, is what you should always be aiming for. And while you may never get there, you’ll get pretty damn close if you TRY. That I do guarantee.

And that point, you’ll be saying and writing about the same thing yourself! ?

Best.

Rahul Mookerjee

PS – Here is where you can pick up the BEST damn course out there on pushups – Pushup Central. Truly the best, most challenging and most EXHAUSTIVE – I CHALLENGE you to find something better!! ?