You won’t get very far with knee or elbow extension alone. Most power is generated closer to the core: the glutes in the pistol, the lats and pecs in the pushup.

A top armwrestler will load even before he grips up with his or her opponent. And an amateur who waits for the referee’s command to pull before turning on his biceps finds himself pinned without knowing what has hit him.

Shrugging your shoulder and/or letting it move forward will destroy your shoulder and your power alike—whether you are punching, benching, or doing pushups. You are in effect ‘disconnecting’ your arm from your powerful torso muscles.

Instead of going down by yielding to the gravity, actively pull yourself down while still staying braced and tight. In the pushup, pull with your lats and other back muscles; don’t forget the inside-out corkscrew on the way down. In the squat, pull with your hip flexors, the muscles on the tops of your thighs whose job it is to jackknife your body.

To make an even stronger point, pinch your nose half shut and try it again. You cannot help noticing a powerful diaphragm action and a comfortable, strong feeling of compression.

When performing the pistol, direct the compressed energy down your hip and leg all the way into the ground, where you generate a static stomp. When performing the one-arm pushup, send the energy along your oblique and ribs, into your armpit, and then along your arm into your hand.

“do as much work as possible while being as fresh as possible.”

Whenever you exert yourself, always start tensing in your lower abdomen. Then send that tension outward to be amplified by the tension of the muscles closer and closer to the periphery. Visualize how you are sending the pressure built up by the modified reverse breath along from your torso to your limbs,

That is, the right arm moves clockwise and the left arm moves counterclockwise. Your shoulders will retract into their sockets and perform more strongly with this external rotation.