ARGH! Pushups!

maverick2

maverick2

New member
So, I'm trying to get into the Navy, but I have weak little girly-girl arms and I'm finding pushups to be a *serious* challenge, much worse than running or crunches. Like, I can't even do a single one on my toes. :ack2:

Right now I'm trying to keep doing modified pushups (on my knees) to build up my chest and arms, but every time I try to do a regular pushup, I just can't do it! I don't have a problem lowering myself, I just can't...well...push myself back up! I bottom out on my stomach every time.

Is there anything I can do at the gym to help with pushups? Right now I'm doing modified pushups in sets of five periodically throughout the day (like now, I've been doing them on the bedroom floor during commercial breaks while I laze around in bed...)
 
First, check your form, or better yet, have someone else check it. Your body should be tight and flat. At the bottom of your pushup, you should be the same. At the bottom of the pushup, there should be the space of a man's fist inbetween your chest and the ground (how they'll measure).

You could try negative pushups, or assisted pushups to get yourself accustomed to the motions.

Negative Pushup - Start at the top position. Count slowly to eight on your way down. At "four", you should be at the halfway point. By the time you hit the 'T' on "eight" you should be at the bottom point. If you can't push back up, just let yourself loose, and crawl back up into the top position in a pushup, and start it again.

Assisted Pushup - Have a buddy stand over the top of you. Take a towel, roll it up long ways (so it is still long), and run it under your armpits / across the top of your pecs, and hold both ends above your back, effectively creating a hammock for your chest. Have him keep even pressure on the towel (don't jerk it). Do regular pushups.

While the myriad of press exercises will help you up your strength, if your end goal is to be able to do real pushups well, then training specifically in that will show you greater gains than pec/tricep/core training in hopes of helping your pushups.

The one last piece of advice that I'd like to offer on the subject is this: Don't let your own mind be your enemy. Often times in something like weight lifting (or in your case, pushups), your mind will tell you "well, that's game, we're not strong enough for that". Don't listen. Find a way to break through that barrier, and knock out that last little bit. It sounds like cheesy Dr. Phil shit, I know, but it is God's honest truth. Anyone here who is a weight lifting enthusiast will tell you the same thing: Your body is capable of doing so much more than your mind says it can... you just need to retrain your mind.

good luck, sister

That's a negative, Ghostrider... Pattern is full
--Goose
 
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Haha, I'm a sister, not a brother, but many many thanks just the same! ;)

Course, being a girl, at least I have some kind of an excuse for having girly-girl arms....hehe...:D

"I feel the need, the need for speed!" - Maverick
 
THERE we go.

One additional thing that I can offer:

Don't cheat yourself on your form. Don't dip your ass. Don't bow up. Keep tight, and keep working at it. Once you are able to do a couple, you will literally explode, and wil be able to do tons at a time.
 
Somebody will say this is wrong, but what helped me bump up my numbers is to go to failure, then without getting up, hold that position with my arms extended and locked while resting for 10 seconds, then doing as many more as I could.

Just guessing, but you may be able to use a foam roller as a pivot on your shins and gradually move it down towards your ankles so there is more of a transition between the knee and toe positions instead of a huge jump.

You may consider mixing up your normal knee position pushups too, and try Hindu pushups. I'm not sure if you can do those very well on your knees or not but it might be worth a try if you're stuck in that position. But, it goes against everything that James warned against, first you bow up, go down against the floor and slide forward, then dip your butt as you are pushing your shoulders up, then you bow at the waist again. You'll have to see a video. The advantage of these is that it works all your supporting muscles, especially your shoulders and upper chest, more than just isolating your lower chest and triceps with normal pushups. They are MUCH harder than normal pushups, that's why I'm saying maybe try those with the knee position, maybe that will help you get to the other position. Usually somebody who can rip out 50-60 normal pushups will be lucky if they can do 20 properly executed Hindu pushups.

Also, last but not least... make sure you go down far enough and go slow. A shallow and quick pushup is tons easier. But, that may be another way to ease into the toe position... do pushups in the toe position but start out very shallow and gradually work up to where you are going all the way to the floor. You should be able to dip down 2-3 inches then make it back up... shoot for where you are worn out in maybe 25 reps then just keep pushing yourself a little deeper every day.
 
If you're training for a specific thing (in this case, the ability to do pushups), limiting your ROM, or doing exercises that "approximate" the motion you are looking for are not going to get you the results you want as fast as possible.

In a perfect world, I would much rather have her doing assisted full pushups over the knee down variety because of the much different position of the chest in the up position. Train specific motions the way you intend to execute them.

If she was just training for general fitness, then she could do whatever sort of goofy / different style pushups she wants. With her specific goal in mind, I don't think that weird styles are the way to go.
 
I second James' suggestions. The program I'm roughly following has you work slowly up to 18 "girl" pushups, then switch over to regular pushups, starting with 9 reps. Well, I can do 18 girl pushups (although I start to get slow and creaky after about 12), and still can't do any full regular pushups. And I can do 9 of the "only dip down ~3 inches" variety, and still can't do any full regular ones. And I have exactly the same problem you have - I can hold it all the way down, but I can't get back up.
 
if you can do 18 "girl" pushups, then you should be strong enough to do a single regular pushup.

Let's take a peek at your form.

Where are your hands located in relation to your shoulders at your top position?
Where are your hands located in relation to your shoulders at your bottom position?
Where does the weight rest in your hands right before you try to push up?
Right before you push up, where are your elbows?

Lots of these problems that might have your form off / working against yourself stem from doing the girl pushups first.
 
So, let's just review this thread so far shall we?

on my knees...

in bed...

the space of a man's fist...

just let yourself loose...

it is still long...

dip your ass...

Keep tight...

3 inches...



Jeez, pushups are so perverted!!!! LOL :smilielol5: Just messin with you guys.
 
I believe that I am the designated thread derailer...

there is no derailment except through me.

I am the alpha and the omega of thread derailing.

thy word be derailed
 
James said:
Where are your hands located in relation to your shoulders at your top position?
Where are your hands located in relation to your shoulders at your bottom position?
Where does the weight rest in your hands right before you try to push up?
Right before you push up, where are your elbows?
Click to expand...

1) A few inches to the outside and maybe an inch to the front. (I usually try to do them with my toes against a wall or other hard surface, because I tend to slide backwards on the way up.)

2) A few inches to the outside, and maybe an inch to the back. If I stick my thumbs out 90 degrees from my palms, they almost hit my shoulders, but are a little too far out.

3) Hmm. The outside of my hand, by my pinky fingers. The heel of my hand to a lesser extent.

4) Stuck out to the side, and a bit to the back. The angle between by upper arm and my torso isn't quite 90 degrees, but it's close. My elbows stick out farther than my hands do.

Thanks!
 
Holy Moley. Sorry for droppin the ball on this, ally. You shoulda PM'd me and told me I'd forgotten about you.

In pushups, much like bench, you don't want your arms at a 90 degree angle to your body. I couldn't even imagine trying to do a pushup with my arms unnaturally out like that. I would have some strong-ass honkers indeed if I could knock out a bunch of reps of those.

When you lower yourself, you should find that if you let your elbows stay at ~ a 45 degree angle (instead of a 90 degree angle), you should not only feel stronger in this position, but you should feel more comfortable. Reading steve's stickied post about bench press should provide a little more detaild information about that than I did, and his points there are no less valid even though we're talking about pushups instead of bench.
 
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