While the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has halted the cadence of everyday life for just about everyone, the world is now beginning to adjust. We’re all handling the challenges of social distancing and self-isolation differently—but that doesn’t mean that we have to go it completely alone in every sense.
Bobby Maximus, former UFC fighter, fitness personality, and author of the Men’s Health Maximus Body book always makes a point to train without equipment even when he has a fully-stocked gym at his disposal—so creating an accessible session for guys stuck at home without access to gear fits perfectly to his training style.
You might not make it through today’s workout with Maximus. The format is one of his favourites—his ‘Death By’ routines are infamous among anyone who has tried them, for good reason. You’re not actually going to die, of course but you will be challenged to the edge of your physical capacity.
The format is simple. Set a timer to go off every minute. In the first minute, you’ll do 1 rep. Minute 2, 2 reps. As the workout progresses, you continue with this setup—so the workout is easy to start, but then it gets really, really hard.
More than anything else, make sure you’re doing your reps properly. “Form becomes of the utmost importance, because that’s the only way to measure our progress,” Maximus says. “Prepare yourself mentally, because the wheels fall off this one in a hurry.”
Perform 1 pushup in the 1st minute, 2 pushups in the 2nd minute, 3 pushups in the 3rd minute, continuing the pattern until you fail. Perform all the reps together or pause between to finish them unbroken—just get them done before the timer rings.
How To Perform A Pushup Properly
“You want to make sure when we get down into that pushup position, we’ve got tight abs, we tense through our quads and tense through our bum. Our hand position is in line with our shoulders,” says Men’s Health Fitness Director Liubinskas.
“When I come back down, chest to the floor, my quads are off the floor and push. Same thing again – come back down, tense, and push.”
