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These types of exercises, plyometrics , are used to make your muscles more powerful while honing your coordination. Trainer Don Saladino designs programs with plyometrics to challenge his superhero actor clients like Ryan Reynolds and Sebastian Stan , to move more like their onscreen personas.
To perform the lateral plyo pushup, all you need is some space on the gym floor. Make sure that you're clear on all sides, since you'll be taking up a ton of ground real estate as you explode out of your pushup into the air.
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- Get on the ground in a pushup position. That means your palms are on the ground slightly further than shoulder width apart, your glutes and core are squeezed to help keep your spine straight, and you have your gaze slightly forward.
- Bend your elbows to lower your chest to the ground.
- Press against the floor to explode upwards and to the left, bringing your palms off the ground.
- Keep your arms in the same position and land softly on your palms with you fingers splayed, disbursing the impact across as much of your hand as possible.
- Repeat in the opposite direction.
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Interested in learning another super-powered aerial pushup variation? If you're up for a challenge, check out this explainer on how to master the Superman pushup.
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To add the lateral plyo pushup to your workout, try 5 sets of 5 reps in each direction. For more superhero-body building moves, you can check out all of our Superhero Fit Workouts or Saladino's full program .