Working into push-ups.

jaymijones

I haven't been able to do a push-up since the 8the grade. I'm currently only about 20lbs overweight, and still dropping. I have always just had very little upper body strength. I've been working on building up my strength for awhile. I figured if I strengthened all my upper body muscles push-ups would start to come easier. I still try to do them regularly too. I've been at it for months now and I still can't do a real push-up. I can do them if I lean against my kitchen counter at a 45 degree angle, I can do them from my knees if I prop up on my kids' toy chest, at maybe a 30 degree angle, and that's almost too hard. But I can't do one from either a full plank or even half plank on the floor. When I try I can only get about halfway down before by arms give out and I collapse.

What am I doing wrong? Do I just need more time?

jaymijones

I should add the 8th grad was nearly 20 years ago for me.

kaizaku

You may have to build your strength up. Do from your knees. It will take time. You can put your legs on the couch and do press from decline position. That may be hard but will build arm and upper body.

Lucianofreitas

Hi, I am using an app named "6 Weeks Training" and it is very good. You should to try.

VeryKatie

Try progressing at various angles. After 45° try 40, 35, 30, 20, 15, 10, 5 (add "ish" to the end of all those), etc. You may need to be creative with the support you use to do the pushups (beds, chairs, stools, car summer tires laying in your garage?, edge of the tub, dumbells with plates, a step, etc). My You Are Your Own Gym book suggest doing 2 - 3 sets of 12 at the progressive angles. You then move to a shallower angle once you can complete all the sets/reps in one session without losing good form. It just takes time. It suggests also doing it every other day (3 times a week).

You could also try supplementing with bench press to work up some strength.

Unfortunately, going on your knees can be too big of a difference.

omakase619

Make sure to divert some weight to your lower body. So when u do a push up the weight isn't purely on your chest/shoulders. Also, do your push ups on a soft padded mat. This should help you get the correct form down as you gain strength. Keep doing them everyday.

Spliner1969

It takes time to build up the correct muscles for push ups. I spent months doing progression like you're doing just to get to the point i could do a standard push up. I just didn't have any of the required muscles built up at all from being sedentary for 20+ years. It sounds to me like you're doing all the right things from your original post, just keep at them. Try and do more and more each day on your kitchen counters, decreasing your angle as you go. Work your way down to using a chair for the angle instead of the counter, it'll get you closer to the ground. Using your knees is probably a bit too easy, and if you find the reduced angle harder, simply do less, then take a break and come back and do more. When you try push ups the regular way, and can't do them, start at the upper level and go down to the floor slowly, then go back up on your knees or help yourself back up and repeat. It's all about muscle development. It's also hard to develop those muscles (but not impossible) in a deficit. So if you're still dieting it's going to simply take a good long time. Just don't give up, keep it up, and you'll get there. Now that I can do normal push ups I do them whenever I get a chance, I'll hop down and do 10 and go about my day.

When I first started trying push ups and pull ups I did what you tried. I used my kitchen counters at a 45 deg angle. I'd do as many as I could stand, then I'd go to a pull up bar I purchased and installed that swings down, and do as many inverted rows as I could do at a 45 degree angle. Then I'd rest for a bit and go back and try the push ups on the counter again until I could do no more, then back to the inverted rows. I would repeat that process as many times as I could before my arms would wear out for the day. Eventually I would reduce the angles to a chair height or on the pull-up bar simply put my feet further forward to make it tougher. I made it a regular part of my morning workout. A few months later to my surprise I could easily do 5 push ups and 5 chin ups. A few months after that I could do 10+ push ups and 10+ chin ups. I'm now working on full fledged pull ups and doing more push ups (would like to get to 100) but it's a work in progress.

jaymijones

I do other arm, shoulder, back and core training in addition to lower body strength training on an alternate day as well. I've actually seen a lot of improvements in those areas, so I know I'm already stronger than I was. I'm not quite ready to give up my calorie deficit, so I suppose I can't be surprised that my strength building is going so slow. I might be willing to reassess after I lose another 10lbs, I'm just not there yet. (I started with 40 to lose total).

I'll have to look around for something solid but slightly lower than my kitchen counter.

Spliner1969

jaymijones wrote: »

I do other arm, shoulder, back and core training in addition to lower body strength training on an alternate day as well. I've actually seen a lot of improvements in those areas, so I know I'm already stronger than I was. I'm not quite ready to give up my calorie deficit, so I suppose I can't be surprised that my strength building is going so slow. I might be willing to reassess after I lose another 10lbs, I'm just not there yet. (I started with 40 to lose total).

I'll have to look around for something solid but slightly lower than my kitchen counter.

I use a dining room chair. I prop it up against my refrigerator so it doesn't slide and use that when I want to do incline push ups. Our chairs are fairly low to the ground, about half of the height of my counter tops. Even though I can do regular push ups, I still use it for incline push ups to mix it up and help build more of my chest. One of these days I'll try decline push ups but I'm nowhere near there yet lol. That would be putting your feet on the chair and doing the pushups on the floor for added weight, or better yet, put your feet on the counter and do the pushups on the floor (reverse that 45 degree angle for lots more weight). There's quite a few variations you can try.

patslitzker

In my opinion just keep it simple. Do knee push-ups every day until you can do one push up, then do one push-up and drop down to knee push-ups. You're most likely strong enough to do them your body just needs to learn the movement pattern. By doing that I went from 0 push-ups to 50 push-ups

jaymijones

I just tried the back of my couch. It was hard, but not so hard I couldn't do it, I'll do that for awhile. Once I get to where it's easier, I'll try my chairs again, they're way too low still.

Propping my feet up on a couch or chair sounds painful! Hopefully one day.

leadslinger17

Lots of good advice on working on an incline to start and then progressing down to a normal push-up. Also will add negatives (where you just lower yourself down slowly if you can't push back up). Be sure to do it everyday. You aren't lifting heavy so you can do it every day or nearly so.

Spliner1969

jaymijones wrote: »

Propping my feet up on a couch or chair sounds painful! Hopefully one day.

Agreed. It would be for me as well at the moment. I hope to be at that point sometime late this year, well it's a goal anyway. Jury is most definitely out on whether or not I'll achieve it. I don't lift heavy (back and knee problems/previous surgeries), so body weight is about all I can work with most days.

rybo

Keep working the decreasing height progression, not doing them from your knees. The negatives suggestion is also a good one. Also make sure you have the proper position, don't flare your arms too far, when viewed from above you should look like an arrow, not a "Y".

jaymijones

rybo wrote: »

Keep working the decreasing height progression, not doing them from your knees. The negatives suggestion is also a good one. Also make sure you have the proper position, don't flare your arms too far, when viewed from above you should look like an arrow, not a "Y".

Good to know, I've been wondering if my arm form was correct.

Spliner1969

jaymijones wrote: »

rybo wrote: »

Keep working the decreasing height progression, not doing them from your knees. The negatives suggestion is also a good one. Also make sure you have the proper position, don't flare your arms too far, when viewed from above you should look like an arrow, not a "Y".

Good to know, I've been wondering if my arm form was correct.

I agree, I'd rather progress with height than use my knees. I believe you get better activation in your abs with a standard position, even an elevated one if you aren't on your knees.

30kgin2017

I have never been able to progress from knees to full pushups but I've been doing different incline and also different width push ups and seem to be progressing much better than I did before. I have found that I can almost do a wide push up now. I am following a strength program and usually add some more arm isolation exercises in to each work out since my upper body strength is really poor.

I read that a push up is about 60-66% (cant remember which) of your body weight. I cant bench press that much so I know I have a way to go yet (losing more weight would obviously also help me out).

OldAssDude

Try doing 3 sets from your knees. Do each set until you can barely do another one. Try doing this every other day.

3 sets will break down both muscle fibers, and skipping a day will allow time for your muscles to recover.

After a couple weeks, try doing a full pushup.

Repeat this process until you can do full pushups.

Another tip is to start out with your hands further apart, and working them closer together with each set. This will work the larger muscle groups more, and as you move your hands closer will focus on the smaller muscle groups to allow more even conditioning.