Previous installments in this series can be found here.
Hello, fitness enthusiasts. I had had a rough plan to give you some actual physical work to do for me this week, but the trainer I was charting it out with sprained his ankle playing rugby (dang fitness-obsessed people driving up all our insurance premiums with their costly joint injuries, am I right?) and I am letting him recover. Let’s point out that he somehow did not damage said ankle while making this super-grainy video of his 52 inch box jump (I’ve seen him do 55 inches and stick it, which is wild):
So, instead, I’m going to ramble at you about pushups, since they are a) bodyweight-based, and therefore very individual, and b) my FAVOURITE THINGS, and c) the source of many message-board arguments, and d) free as the air you breathe and the sugar packets you steal from diners.
PUSHUPS. Oh, God, they’re so great. And, look, if you’re new to this, they can be scary. Not, like, clown-scary, or anything, just hard. Maybe you feel your lower back, and you sense that you shouldn’t (you’re right, stop doing it) or you can lower yourself about half an inch and then fall on your face, or maybe you can get all the way down and cannot possibly get back up. That is how they feel for everyone at first. More so for women, though, generally speaking, than men, because of the patriarchy or wizards or something structural.
OKAY, LET’S TALK ABOUT THAT. Not all of you are women, I am sure. Hi! And some of you who are women probably are actually built in such a way that pushups are a total breeze and you’ve never even thought of doing one before, and you just tried and can do ten in a row.
Congratulations, how wonderful.
No, that’s great. But for the rest of you, hey, they did not come easily to me either, not one little bit. Two years ago, I probably couldn’t have done a single “real” pushup to save my life. I’m not sure how that would come up, exactly? There are lots of action movies that suggest you might have to do a single pull-up to save your life, like, when you’re dangling off a ledge and the villain just assumes you’re going to fall off, because you’re a woman with inferior upper-body strength, and walks away. But we’ll come back to pull-ups.
So, you say, what about Lady Pushups? I do not mean Lady as in the opposite of Real, as it is frequently used, because I think that Lady Pushups are completely legitimate and have a role in everyone’s training regimen. Me, I call them Lady Pushups as in Lady and the Tramp, Edward Said’s understandably least-favourite animated motion picture of the 20th century.
(That is an amusing aside about Orientalism, because our fitness coverage is highbrow as shit.)
Lady Pushups are classy. Lady Pushups have a lot of bravery, but maybe they don’t have as much swagger as Tramp Pushups. Tramp Pushups (believe me, we’ll get there together) are how you’ll make Peggy Lee fall in love with you, but Lady Pushups are sassy and a little coy and have really soft ears. But you gotta treat ‘em right.
What does that mean?
It means that Lady Pushups are easy to make useless when done incorrectly. And the useless ones will not meaningfully prepare you for Tramp Pushups. Here is a correct Lady Pushup, done by what appears to be a character from Grand Theft Auto:
See how you always want your hands to be right under your shoulders? It’s so, so much easier to do them if your hands are out in front, but then you’re working a totally different set of muscles. Always ask yourself, “are my hands shooting straight down from my shoulders?” Yes, yes, they are.
See how you are not resting your shins on the floor? The two points of contact are your hands and your knees. You want to be hingeing solely with your elbows. People get super-fussy about where your elbows go in a pushup (back, out to the sides, etc.), but I generally find your elbows will go where your body wants to put them, provided you are doing other things right. If you find they get painful, you can play with it a bit.
Keeping your body in a straight line is not something you necessarily walk in able to do right away. When I think back to my fitness journey, holding my core integrity and maintaining straightness took a long time to build. Until you can do this, things will be a little harder. When you feel your back twinge, or you see (in a mirror, or via a buddy) that you’re bending at the hips or anywhere else that isn’t your elbows, stop, rest, readjust.
I still do Lady Pushups when I hit failure mode on Tramp Pushups. Especially if I’m not getting enough depth, because it’s starting to fall apart. Lady Pushups are a great way to work on going ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE GROUND, which is a really important part of Tramp Pushups. Get used to going all the way down with Lady Pushups, and your Tramp Pushups will one day thank you. And they’re fun on their own, when done right.
Now, if you are further down your road to complete physical fulfillment than some of the others, and you can already do Tramp Pushups, my advice is pretty simple.
Sidenote: I’m going to be mentioning some pieces of gear in this section. You don’t need to buy anything, ever, really, but if the nice people who manufacture this gear want to pay me, everything I mention here DOES contribute positively to my fitness, and I’ll be happy to do lengthy sponsored posts describing all the blissfully painful things you can do with each and every one of them.
1. Do them all the time. Do them constantly! Do ten right now. Do ten later when re-watching the last season of Breaking Bad. Do them while listening to Robyn.
2. Do different kinds!
– If your gym has a pair of Perfect Pushups, give ‘em a try. I find they’re really good for my wrists.
– Do close-grip pushups on the edge of a weight bench.
– Flip a Bosu ball over so the rounded side is down, hang on to the outside edges, and do pushups on that.
– Put your feet on a weight bench and your hands on the ground and do pushups there.
– Find a TRX strap (they’re all over my gym, and I use them every single time I train, they are SOLID GOLD) and do pushups on that.
– Put your hands on the outer edges of one of the big exercise balls we’re supposed to sit on, do pushups.
– If you’re a total bad-ass, go get a medicine ball from the rack, put it under one of your hands in normal pushup stance, do a pushup, roll it until it’s under your other hand, do a pushup. When you start to die, get into Lady Pushup stance and push it until you are totally and irretrievably cooked.
These are all just Tramp Pushup concepts to tease you, because you’ll get to see them in the wild come our fall fitness video roll-out, and then those things which confuse you now will be horribly, beautifully real to you.
3. Keep your goddamn tailbone low but with a little tuck in your abs, come on now. You’re supposed to be a plank, right? Bend at your elbows and nowhere else. I can tell your butt is too high from here.
Love you guys. Death will come for us all, but if we work on it, we’ll be able to shove him physically away from our bodies without tweaking our lower backs in the process.
Ed. note: if you are not quite ready for Lady Pushups, or if your boobs are too big to do any kind of standard pushups, head down to the comments where I’ll talk about open doorframe options.
See you Thursday after next. Get ready for an all-bodyweight full-body workout for beginners, with some suggestions on how to amp it up for non-beginners. And maybe I’ll give you one of my own workouts, just for fun. KETTLEBELLS, man.
Tags: feel the burn, fitness, perfection, pushups
Back in my high school marching band days, whenever someone would screw up during practice, they’d have to do push-ups. And it was called “celebrating,” as in, “celebrating the opportunity to get better.” Punishment is reward! Pretty Orwellian. And they technically were voluntary, although you’d catch all manner of shit if you screwed up and didn’t celebrate. If that’s not a mindfuck at the tender age of 15, I don’t know what is.
Anyway, we all got really good at doing push-ups. We were pretty buff nerds.
Miss U, high school marching band. TOTAL buff nerds! My butt never looked so good (thanks to our not-so-flat practice field).
Yess I am also a Pushup Enthusiast!
My 2¢: don’t worry about doing them quickly. Doing them correctly is way more important than doing x pushups in y amount of time! That goes for almost every weight exercise, actually.
Oh thank you, Nicole, I have been trying to start doing push-ups and didn’t really know how to do proper Lady Push-ups.
Wait! I am confused. The guy in the video does NOT look like he has his hands directly under his shoulders. He is making an A shape; his hands seem like they are very far away from his shoulders.
I only ask for clarification because I think I may have been making Lady push-ups waaaay too hard for myself, and maybe that is why I am terrible at them.
Ah! Good clarification. Under as in not-in-front is desirable. They can be out to the sides, that’s the A you’re seeing. But you’ll notice that the heels of his hands are lined up with the shoulder and do not move.
“That is an amusing aside about Orientalism, because our fitness coverage is highbrow as shit.”
I never want my fitness coverage without amusing asides about Orientalism, ever again.
Times in my life I have been reading a piece about pushups and had to google “Edward Said Orientalism” midway through: 1.
<3 you, Nicole.
YES. Agreed. Pushups are always better with social & literary theory.
I don’t know, but I’ve been told
Prisons are the foundation institutions of society
And we are taught to accept surveillance in pursuit of safety!
Ooh-Rah!
I’m feeling like we need to start some local park pushup-critical theory meetups, because this is something I would really like to shout with a bunch of fellow Toastians. While getting physically fit.
Now do one about the incitement to discourse as a means of constituting a conservative sexuality and establishing greater institutional controls!
Hey hey, ho ho
Conservative sexualities, as you know
Are constituted
through discourse
And thus give institutional controls force
Goooooooooo Lady and/or Tramp Pushups!
(It will surprise you not at all to learn that I have my students Tweet Plato in fall semester.)
Even though as of Monday I have been officially done with school forever and ever, I am coming to your class because tweeting Plato FTW.
@RadicalDemocrats Philosopher Kings FTMFW!
@Pericles Oh, right, look at what democracy has gotten you.
That was totally my favorite part.
Hadrians wall practice update:
I didn’t walk much this week because I had some weird pain in my hip/leg? Like a trapped nerve or something. I had to take codeine-based painkillers just to limp over to the shop so 8 mile walks weren’t on!
But I think apart from that I am on track and it’s happening in just over a month aaaah
I went back to doing yoga today I hadn’t lost as much flexibility as I fear after a couple of weeks off. I use the videos on youtube by tara stiles. Hopefully I’ll be able to get enough money to do actual clases soon but my anxiety is very high this month so I’m not sure classes are something I can do.
I used to do 3-0 push ups a day and now I can only do ten. Let’s get back to 30.
I initially read 3-0 as “three to zero,” as in “between three and zero pushups a day,” and I was like “That seems like very reasonable behavior.”
DAMN IT I DIDN’T NOTICE AND NOW YOU’VE COMMENTED I CAN’T NINJA AWAY MY TYPO
this is the worst thing ever
(not really)
I am so going to love following these updates. HADRIAN’S WALL AHOY!
Ughhh, push-ups. The bane of my exercising existence with planks. I know I HAVE to do them, but I really, really never want to. (See also: Running, which I never want to do and don’t do.)
Running is my least favorite exercise. Who says you have to run? Cardio comes in all shapes and sizes: swimming, Zumba, biking… Running can go to hell.
Yeah, I’m going to be sad when the public pool closes at the end of the month and there will be no more lap swims for me. And seriously, fuck running. I don’t understand “runner’s high.” All I can think when I’m running is “When can I stop running?”
I have to bribe myself to keep going when I run. Like, “OK just run until the end of this song. Ok, song ended–just run til the clock says :15. Ok, now just keep running til this next song ends. Ok. Five more minutes, you can definitely do five more minutes.” I get through an entire workout but man, it is not fun. Swimming, biking, dancing…so much way better.
I’m debating whether or not to read this post, because the first sentence is, “Hello, fitness enthusiasts,” (which I am decidedly not) and I have never in my life been able to do any kind of pushup. I don’t want to feel like a weak, lazy loser any more than I already do. But on the other hand, I like to read all the things, so…
Read it, it sort of makes you feel like you could move to the ground by your computer and do five push ups, and that in a year maybe you’ll be able to do more. And as always Nicole’s outlook is very “you do you” (Love this Nicole!)
That’s good to know! I feel bad enough about my life without reading something that reads (in my mind) as “everyone is doing healthy things but you.” I know Nicole is not exclusive in her writing, but I’m feeling particularly depressed and hopeless these days and have to be careful what I ingest literarily, because it’s far too easy to spiral down. I will read it, thanks!
Aw… remember that taking care of your mental health is connected to and part of your physical health. You’re contributing to your fitness by knowing when to back off fitness talk. (And seriously… who in modern Western society is good about maintaining mental health? Answer: very few of us.)
You are doing healthy things. Don’t be so hard on yourself!
You’re right, thanks. 🙂
Man…I wish the whole world were a macrocosm of this community. Everyone is so nice! In a real way, not a patronizing way.
Oh, for sure. Knowing what you can and cannot [read/watch/hear] at the moment is part of taking care of yourself, just as surely as knowing when to stop [lifting weights/running/other exercise thing that exercise-y people do, ’cause there’s more than just those two, I’m sure, WHATEVER] is part of taking care of yourself.
For example, I read this avidly and was mighty tempted to try a bent-knee push-up… but I probably won’t give in to that temptation. An injury a few years back taught me to trust my body and my instincts or suffer dire consequences, and I really wish I’d learned to honor my body’s — and my mind’s! — needs earlier.
Aspirational fitness enthusiasts?
Think of yourself as a Reading About Fitness Enthusiast instead. Kind of like I am an elaborate pastry making enthusiast. (I suck at yeast based baking.)
Anyway. You KNOW Nicole knows how you feel. She gives you “pushups? Never done one” instructions.
She does? NICOLE I’M SORRY I EVER DOUBTED YOU
Where there was only one set of footprints in the sand, I was doing a gentle overhead press with your body.
aaand that is officially the first time I’ve ever been turned on by talk of exercise.
I am definitely a Reading About Fitness Enthusiast.
Ugh! It’s Grand Theft Auto, MOOOOM!
You kids today, with your videocassette games.
Ok! I am having this problem where I start with my shoulders directly above my hands, but I sort of slide back as I push up. And then if I were to do another my hands would be way out in front. Am I doing it wrong? Or is it a combination of slick floor and a lack of core strength?
I have that problem sometimes depending on the floor I’m on. Usually adjusting my footwear helps. Also, I don’t think there’s much wrong with adjusting your hand/arm position after each pushup, but I have no authority on which to say that. It just seems to me that it’s better to take it slowly and adjust each time than let your body slide all over the place and do the pushups wrong.
Are you on your knees or doing Tramp Pushups? If the latter, get up on your toes and you’re less likely to slide.
One tip that really helped me out on my Journey to Tramp Pushups was crossing one leg over the other and only balancing on one foot. I can’t really explain why, but pivoting on both feet was was really fucking with me. Did/Will this help anyone else? Let me know!
Oooh I will try that! And as a bonus, it makes you look even badassier.
Yes, please let me know if it works! My husband suggested it to me years ago. I also feel like it helps with keeping your tailbone tucked in.
This is very timely. I just started New Rules of Lifting for Women, and so far it’s ok, but it requires way more reps of everything than I normally do. I’m supposed to do 15 reps of push ups and I can do…2. So that means I’m downgrading to Lady pushups, which seems counterintuitive but he’s the expert, I guess. Nicole, do you have any thoughts on Lady pushups vs. incline pushups for training for Tramp pushups?
Incline pushups are super great for Tramp Pushups. IF you have access to a TRX strap, those are the actual best way to do incline pushups, because you can just insta-adjust to your ability level by walking your feet in or out a step. But walls are fine too.
The real key is to keep trying Tramp Pushups, too. Just never give up, and then try to do a little better. I feel like mine EXPLODED, like toddler language skills. Like I finally got to the point where I could do ten, and then the other day I was doing sets of “as many reps as possible” (AMRAP) in thirty-second bursts, and I did thirty in my first set, like, one a second, and I was all DAMN GIRL GO BUY SOME SHAKE SHACK.
Another way to get an incline if your gym doesn’t have a TRX – use the Smith Machine! (which you’re supposed to use for squats, but apparently smith machine squats are terrible for you)
Also, I second Nicole’s suggestion to keep at those Tramps. I have been working on getting to Tramp Tricep Pushups (where your elbows and upper arms stay close to your body) for probably 5 months by doing Ladies 2x per week and Tramps 1x week. Then just last week I did my first real, chest to floor Tramp… and today I did 9 in a row!!
The Smith Machine is what I’ve been using! It’s also useful for assisted pull-ups. I will continue doing both, then.
When I started that plan I did the push-ups on an incline by setting the bar on the Smith machine on, like, the fourth rung or something. I could do a few push-ups but not a set of 15, per the program.
As time went on it got easier and I’d move down a rung until I was eventually on the ground. Now I can bust out sets of 12 push-ups like Demi f’in Moore.
Hi, love this! Love pushups! One point of clarification about planks/highness of butts/back-tweaking: I recommend thinking about the plank as the front rather than backside of you. Note that even for svelte Grand Theft Auto character, his butt does actually stick up above the line between his shoulders and his knees. This is even more true for many of us real people (i.e. anyone whose butt protrudes at all behind them if you look at yourself in profile standing in front of a mirror–after all, here your body is in a straight line!) The only way to force that tush into a straight line with shoulders and knees in pushup position would be actually to release core engagement, let hips sag and compress lower back. No good! Risks back injury, defeats the core-strengthening purpose of pushups, and cheats you out of some of the upper body work as well (because of physics, somehow.) Don’t fear butt sticking up, just make sure you’re not bending at the hips.
This is so true! I have an almost concave butt, regardless of my weight, as do most of my relatives, and it is easy for me to forget this. I would add that trying to keep a little tightness in your abs helps? Like thinking of doing a tiny crunch while you are doing almost any exercise helps keep you from over-arching your back and putting strain on it.
Yes such a good tip! Good for safety and good for making sure you get the total-body benefits of pushups. (And what a good all-over exercise they are is really the main draw for me; were it just for arm strength, I might pick something where weighing less isn’t such an advantage, who needs that!)
I actually do push-ups as part of my ab exercises. (Well, barely push-ups, but, you know.) I hold a plank for thirty seconds and then do as many good push-ups as I can, which right now is two. Working on it!
Concave butt. I diiiieeee.
Yeah, I had a friend watch me do push-ups once and he was convinced I was doing something wrong but he couldn’t figure out what (and he was in the Army and therefore did Tramp push-ups, and I was doing Lady push-ups). His wife pointed out that the problem was just that my ass is bigger than hers and I have a much more pronounced lumbar curve. My back was as straight as it ever gets, but it sure as fuck didn’t look it.
This makes me want to try doing push ups for possibly the first time in my life! Usually I would dread them.
My only related push up exercise is a “Pilates push-up,’ which we had to do in the one Pilates class I ever took. You got into plank position and then tried to lower your body through the elbow joint WITHOUT moving your shoulder blades. Best to attempt with someone watching or possibly holding a finger on your shoulder blades.
Do you recommend Lady Pushups until you can do Tramp Pushups and THEN work on variations? Or do variations of Lady Pushups as well? When I take classes they throw all of these variations at me and when you struggle to do pushups at all, the variations are just kind of…distracting? But they yell at me and I comply because went to 13 years of Catholic school. BUT, do you think I’d be missing out on any arm strengthening potential if I just did regular Ladies until I can do Tramps?
I do some of the variations I’ve mentioned in Lady Pushup stance as well, and it’s been fine, but some variations probably won’t translate. Don’t let people in classes yell at you (hahahaha I am a Canadian and am not capable of following my own advice), just say I AM A GROWN WOMAN AND THIS IS THE PUSHUP I AM DOING and then do something that doesn’t distract but DOES exhaust you. If you want to work on variations, you’ll find it easier to do so at home or in an environment when you’re not quickly moving from one activity to another and can really focus on form and listening to what feedback you’re getting.
As much as I hate pushups, this post actually inspired me to want to try them again. For a while I was doing pushups a couple of times a month to get stronger for dance, and I kind of stopped. Pushups: I’m coming for you.
Can we talk about doing push-ups with ginormous boobs? Theoretically, I enjoy push-ups, but from base to tip, my breasts are longer than my hand, and so they touch the ground pretty early in a push-up. WHAT DO I DO? Does it matter?
Okay, YOU are the person for whom TRX pushups are designed. Or, in the absence of access to one, any sort of incline pushup where you have your hands on something to the sides of you, but nothing in front (get up on your toes and hold the sides of open doorframes and ooze into them, or kneel on something soft while holding the sides of an open doorframe and ooze into them.)
Can you explain the ooze thing a little more? Are your hands on different sides or are they both on the same side?
One hand on each side. So, lean forward, get up on your toes, and slowly bend your elbows, lowering yourself into the space between the two sides of the doorframe until your elbows are fully bent, keeping your body straight, then use your arms to push yourself slowly back out.
I think I get it. I will try it out. Thanks!
I actually have no idea what you are talking about. Is there a video or something that shows how this works? I also have the boob problem but I can’t seem to visualize this at all.
I used to dread pushups, but then I started getting really into yoga and realized that they’re the best thing for building up for all those fun arm balances. I definitely do more of the ‘yogi pushup’ (elbows in tight to the sides), but I think I should try doing more of the traditional kind, to work different muscles. I love the idea of doing them all the time, not just during designated workout time.
How do you build up to chaturanga?
Late there, but wanted to answer! The lady push-up is itself a great way to build up to chaturanga. So are any other poses that use arm strength (e.g. that pose where you make an l-shaped right angle with your body so that your feet are on the wall, you’re upside down, and you’re keeping your torso and legs straight). But if you’re doing yoga, the other thing I find really really helpful is activating your mulabandha, which is what yoga people say when they mean lifting your pelvic floor internally. It means using the muscle you use to do kegels, or more prosaically the muscle you use to stop peeing mid-stream. To “activate” it just means pull that internal muscle upwards the way you would if you’re cutting off the pee-stream. To me, it feels like pulling in and up. It is *amazing* for how it can make your whole body feel lighter and is good for all sorts of things: chaturanga, jump-throughs, any kind of balancing pose. It even lets you bend further forward and with a flatter back when you are doing forward bends. It is mysterious and wonderful! (And as a bonus it is good for your sex life).
Now if only this post would tell me why the bones in my elbows often make clicking noises when I am doing push-ups. It doesn’t hurt but is annoying. I will go experiment with some of the variations Nicole gave (thanks!) and see if I can figure it out!
But what if you can’t even do a Lady Pushup.
DAMMIT HTML, WHY DON’T YOU WORK RIGHT
I’d do the open doorframe suggestion I gave upthread to our large-boobed sister. You can have your feet almost in the doorway, and just walk ’em back tiny bits as you get stronger.
I am The Least Fit.
I totally just did ten doorframe pushups and I FEEL LIKE I CAN DO ANYTHING NOW.
(Guys? Nicole is a genius. Which, duh. But still.)
I am so happy for you! DOORFRAME PUSHUPS CHANGING LIVES, whether your issue is glorious zeppelin breasts or just not being quite ready for Lady Pushups.
Tried ’em, love ’em, converted for life (or until someone builds me a custom push-up pit to do regular push-ups over).
Also considering putting “glorious zeppelin breasts” on a t-shirt. Or my Twitter profile. Or my business cards.
No zeppelin-breasts to speak of here, but I feel like doorframe push ups also work for people with weak knees, like mine. Doing lady push-ups puts so much strain on my knees because I have crazy kneecaps that don’t like staying in one place for too long and tendons that stretch everywhere they shouldn’t be stretching, especially if they are bearing a lot of weight.
As an aside, door push-ups totally remind me of that illusion kids do, where you press your arms against a door frame and then step out and your arms lift *magically*. Maybe this can be incorporated into the body-weight work out.
So, for lady (not Lady) pushups, once our boobs hit the floor, were done, right? I mean, technically I could go down further…
This might sound weird, but could you tell me what is supposed to hurt when you do a push-up? I keep feeling like I’m holding my body wrong, because if I shift a little bit this way then it’s more like up around the top of my pecs, but then if I do them that way it’s all triceps all the way, and . . . what’s supposed to hurt?
(The good hurt, I mean. Nothing is supposed to bad-hurt, I’m pretty sure.)
When you do a push-up, what’s supposed to hurt are the feelings of everyone who ever rejected you.
#revenegeworkouts
A handful of things should hurt! Your abs, a bit, if you’re keeping them tight (ideal), and your pecs and your delts and your triceps. I feel different things depending on what else I’ve worked that day, honestly.
What about your knees and wrists? I’m putting weight on them so duh, of course they should hurt, but also those joints hurt so much after just a few pushups that I always have to stop. Is there a fix for that?
For your knees, make sure you’re on a soft-ish surface. To protect your wrists, it feels weird, but grip two five pounds dumbbells while you do it, pointing your knuckles down to the ground. You can do some image-searching to see what I mean.
Here’s an example: http://www.fitbie.com/exercise/dumbbell-pushup-me…
Except you’d be on your knees. And, when you get awesome, you’re doing Tramps with these, and once you get to the top, you lift one of the weights up and set it back down, then do the other side. THEN HEAVIER WEIGHTS!!!
I suck at pushups and therefore hate them and refuse to do them but now I feel like I at least have options. So, thanks!
In related news, a week or two ago I commented on this here website that I resolved to swim laps 3x a week AND I TOTALLY HAVE DONE THAT FOR TWO WEEKS and I feel awesome!
WOOOOOOOO!
Swimming is all the rad. All. Yay!
Confession Time!
In all my years as a sporty girl, push-ups and pull-ups have eluded me entirely. Like, I can’t ever do them. Also, I can’t bench press for shit. I think this is maybe due to my orangutan like arms, which leads to leverage issue or something. I don’t know, I’m bad at physics. But seriously, you guys, my knuckles pretty much totally drag on the ground. I’m good at water. Land is bad for me.
But you should totally do push-ups. Do all the push-ups that I don’t do! Or something.
I have the world’s least impressive bench press, but it’s getting better. I also just don’t spend a lot of time on it, it’s one of those things like bicep curls that aren’t even that helpful except for saying HOW MUCH YOU BENCH DUDE?
I just got off the couch and did some Lady pushups!
My partner and I were just talking about adding pushups to our (still baby) workout routine tonight! She is against them but I am totally psyched now! HOO-AH.
For truly Gollum hated and loved pushups, as he hated and loved himself.
Hey I can totally do lady push-ups look I just did ten just now while you were in the shower and couldn’t possibly see.
Just wanted to say: That video! DAMN! And let’s talk about pullups soon, because this is one of my obsessions ever since a widely read East Coast publication informed me that ladies can’t do them. Can too! (I mean, I can’t. YET. But lots of ladies can!)
YES! I want this for pull-ups. I’ve got the push-ups down (at least when I’m not having this nagging base of toe injury that hurts when I put pressure on it, ARGH), but pull-ups? It’s like they lurk up there above me, mocking me.
I can!
I train with circus peeps, and every.single.woman.there has to be able to do pull-ups for basic routines on the silks, lyra, and trapeze.
Woman can’t do pull-ups, my left lat!
But what about just holding plank pose? Is that helping anything at all, or am I just deluding myself?
Core, for sure.
If you can’t do lady pushups, you could start with standing wall pushups.
Don’t forget to breathe! Inhale as you go down, exhale as you come back up. Despite the obvious benefit, it really helps me focus and create rhythm. And sometimes when I’m doing that one last push-up and feel like I can’t get myself back up, I imagine my exhale propelling me back. Silly but it works for me.
Late there, but wanted to answer! The lady push-up is itself a great way to build up to chaturanga. So are any other poses that use arm strength (e.g. that pose where you make an l-shaped right angle with your body so that your feet are on the wall, you're upside down, and you're keeping your torso and legs straight). But if you're doing yoga, the other thing I find really really helpful is activating your mulabandha, which is what yoga people say when they mean lifting your pelvic floor internally. It means using the muscle you use to do kegels, or more prosaically the muscle you use to stop peeing mid-stream. To "activate" it just means pull that internal muscle upwards the way you would if you're cutting off the pee-stream. To me, it feels like pulling in and up. It is *amazing* for how it can make your whole body feel lighter and is good for all sorts of things: chaturanga, jump-throughs, any kind of balancing pose. It even lets you bend further forward and with a flatter back when you are doing forward bends. It is mysterious and wonderful! (And as a bonus it is good for your sex life).
Now if only this post would tell me why the bones in my elbows often make clicking noises when I am doing push-ups. It doesn't hurt but is annoying. I will go experiment with some of the variations Nicole gave (thanks!) and see if I can figure it out!
I just graduated from Lady to Tramp pushups!!! Had to share. Elated. Feel like I’ve just won a national championship. HERE WE GO!
YAY!!!!
Great post, doing pushups with the right setup is crucial. It’s not just about speed, it’s important to focus on posture and doing them the right way.
Nice Post for improvement!
Please please please PLEASE PLEASE post vids for each exercise? Some of us are total novices and Wikipedia explanations are confusing, and even diagrams I manage to misconstrue someone, and am sure I’m like wrenching my back or something instead of doing what I’m supposed to. New learner, no experience, need step by step video linkage.