Shadowing Practice: What your push-ups are actually missing (feat. Red Delta Project) - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Yellow Dude brought in legends to make your training go bananas.
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Today, it's Matt from Red Delta Project to make your push-ups and pull-ups actually count.
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Greetings my friend, Matt Schifferle here for the Red Delta Project.
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Today we are talking about how you can build more muscle
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and strength than you've ever had before with a routine that is comprised of primarily push-ups and pull-ups.
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Because simple routines have lots of advantages to them.
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They're simple and efficient as far as time, energy, and equipment requirements.
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You don't need a gym, and you don't even need to have a lot of complexity in the programming.
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A constrained approach to your strength training doesn't allow you to be lost in variety and a lot of novelty,
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nor can you hide in complexity to distract you from the job at hand,
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which is getting really strong and powerful at very basic fundamental exercises.
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But don't make the mistake of thinking that, okay, I will do push-ups and pull-ups until I'm just completely sick of the movements and burn myself out on them.
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Always remember that success comes from improving how well you do the techniques, not just how much you do it until you exhaust yourself.
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And for this, I have two suggestions for you.
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The first of which is to set your tension before every set of push-ups and pull-ups.
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So for the example of doing push-ups, lay down on the floor, position your hands and your shoulders and every inch of your body where you want it to be,
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then purposely flex the muscles you're going to work, chest, shoulders, triceps, even your glutes and your abs, before finally applying resistance when you push off the floor.
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When it comes to your pull-ups, you want to grab onto the bar, set the tension, squeezing all of your back muscles,
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your shoulders, biceps, even your grip muscles before lifting your feet off the floor or off of some sort of a support, like a sturdy chair.
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Doing this will ensure that you are using your muscles to a very high degree in every repetition, for every set, in every workout,
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to not only produce a much stronger stimulus for building muscle and strength, but it also helps to protect your joints.
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The second thing I recommend to do is to put a little bit of acceleration to emphasize the concentric
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or lifting portion of each repetition.
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Lower yourself down smooth and under control
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and then drive yourself off the floor for push-ups or up towards the bar when you're doing pull-ups.
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This acceleration for the concentric phase makes your muscles work just a little bit harder
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and engage all your muscles as a cohesive unit for functional power, athleticism, and to stimulate more strength and hypertrophy.
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And speaking of which, if you want to use this to program with an emphasis on building muscle, two to three hard sets,
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pushing about 10 to 20 repetitions, close to failure for at least two to three sets.
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If you want to program this for strength, four or five sets, keeping a few reps in the tank, but with a heavier level of resistance,
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either weighted or with progressive technique, so that you force the muscle to hold more tension.
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This way, you can use push-ups and pull-ups to achieve whatever goals that you want and improve your proficiency in each technique.
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Best of luck in your workouts this week.
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Be fit and live free.
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Two moves, that's it.
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If your push-ups still look rough after this, that's on you.
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This one was a team-up with Matt from Red Delta Project.
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Want more of these?
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Drop a name in the comments.
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Now train.
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Go bananas!
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “What your push-ups are actually missing”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: muscle, push, pull, strength, floor. This video has 41 sentences and 636 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:47. The speaker talks at a natural 168 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| repetition noun | /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/ | The act or an instance of repeating or being repeated. |
| concentric adjective | /kənˈsɛn.tɹɪk/ | Having a common center. |
| acceleration noun | /əkˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/ | The act of accelerating, or the state of being accelerated; increase of motion or action; as opposed to retardation or deceleration. |
| banana noun | /bəˈnænə/ | An elongated curved tropical fruit of a banana plant, which grows in bunches and has a creamy flesh and a smooth skin. |
| workout noun | /ˈwɝk.aʊ̯t/ | An exercise session; a period of physical exercise. |
| complexity noun | /kəmˈplɛk.sɪ.ti/ | The state of being complex; intricacy; entanglement. |
| athleticism noun | /æθˈlɛtɪsɪzəm/ | The state of being an athlete, or of taking part in athletic events. |
| biceps noun | /ˈbaɪ.sɛps/ | Any muscle having two heads. |
| cohesive adjective | /kəʊˈhiː.sɪv/ | Having cohesion. |
| constrain verb | /kənˈstɹeɪn/ | To force physically, by strong persuasion or pressuring; to compel; to oblige. |
| hypertrophy noun | /haɪˈpɜɹ.tɹə.fi/ | An increase in the size of an organ or tissue due to the enlargement of its individual cells. |
| proficiency noun | /pɹəˈfɪʃənsi/ | Ability, skill, competence. |
| purposely adverb | /ˈpɝpəsli/ | On purpose; intentionally. |
| sturdy adjective | /ˈstɜrdi/ | Of firm build; stiff; stout; strong. |
| triceps noun | /ˈtɹaɪ.sɛps/ | Any muscle having three heads. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| push off verb | To go away; to get lost. |
| team up with verb | To associate with another in a joint enterprise. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 9 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/, acceleration /əkˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, proficiency /pɹəˈfɪʃənsi/
- Long words — get the stress right: repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/, acceleration /əkˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, complexity /kəmˈplɛk.sɪ.ti/, athleticism /æθˈlɛtɪsɪzəm/, hypertrophy /haɪˈpɜɹ.tɹə.fi/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like repetition, concentric, acceleration.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.