Exercise - Hand Clap Foot Clap Rebound Push Up

The Hang Clean is a dynamic full body exercise where 85% of the power generated comes from the powerful muscle actions of the legs and hips. Once you have perfected the execution of the Hang Clean and you are able to perform 3 sets of 20 reps with a pair of 10 lbs dumbbells, you can learn another dynamic, full body exercise that is focused on the upper body and the core.

The Hand Clap Foot Clap Rebound Push Up is an explosive, full body exercise way superior to the "static" bench press. While doing bench press tends to increase muscle mass and decrease muscle speed, the Hand Clap Foot Clap Rebound Push Up has exactly the opposite effect: it increases muscle speed without developing a disfunctional mass.

It is a very demanding exercise that stresses the muscle a lot more than regular push ups. Before you attempt to do it, make sure that you can do at least 20 push ups correctly and very fast.

At first, just to generate enough power to be able to get your hands airborne at the end of full arm extension. Once you are able to get airborne at least 10-12 times with some rest in between, try to do it continuously by freefalling from the air, preloading your triceps and pecs and rebounding up in the air (this is called the rebound push up).

When you are able to perform 10-12 rebound push ups in a continuous manner, try to propel your self up with such a force that you can do a hand clap before the start of the freefall. This will need a more powerful and more explosive muscle action of the pecs, triceps, anterior deltoids and of the abs and the iliopsoas muscles as well.

The next step is to propel yourself up with even more force and the added involvement of the hip flexors so that you are able to perform a foot clap as well.

I must emphasize that this is a very demanding exercise where you repeatedly load and reload your muscles and force them to perform powerful countermovements (your body moves with full speed in one direction and immediately at full speed in the opposite direction) and the demands placed on the muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments are huge. Tissue repair and adaptive changes take a lot more time. It is very important that you progress gradually and give at least 48-72 hours for your body to recover.