Push Up Advice, Plz?

Sycoholic

Now, you want to work on muscle memory. You need to go all the way down and do them properly. It's perfectly fine to do them on your knees as it alleviates some of the weight on your upper body. When you can start doing regular push ups, then do them. As you tire, drop to your knees and continue doing them. In the Army they don't want to see you quit, so you're allowed a 2-3 second break and you can drop to your knees. Now that's mostly a basic training thing as soldiers develop and get stronger, but I've seen guys do it even after. Make sure you're working your abs as well since you'll incorporate this muscle when doing regular push ups. Planks and crunches are great. Try some leg raises if you can too. And above all, if you want to do more push ups, then do just that. Try and do one hundred a day for starters. When I have a pt test coming up I focus on the events, push ups, sit ups, 2 mile run. I cut my run back to 3 miles then 2 miles, I do sit ups fast avoiding declines and weights, and I do push ups all day long. Every hour I'll drop and do them til I tire. Commercial? Good time for push ups. I went from breaking my wrist to passing my push ups with my highest score ever with only one month to train (test was 3 months after breaking my wrist).

SJackson50

What does a proper knee push up look like? I've seen people with their knees under their hips and I've seen people go into plank and drop their knees and do push ups?

During a proper modified push-up, your body should still be in a straight line, abs tight--not with the knees under the hips. This will keep the weight distributed so that it becomes easier to rise to your feet when you become stronger. good luck!

Yogi_Carl

I started out not being able to do above one push-up at a time. I tried knee push-ups but I didn't build any strength.

I built my push-ups by starting at the up part of the push-up (plank) and lowering slowly down to the floor, up on my hands and knees to plank and lowering again. Three sets of ten negatives like this and eventually I got to where I could do three sets of ten real positive reps in good form.

Now I am doing three sets of ten close-hand spaced push-ups and looking to progress to the next stage of intensity to keep advancing strength gains.

Keep going like this using the same progressive intensity you do in weight lifting and you will see similar strength gains.

Griffin220x

If you want to improve on something like pushups or even pullups (which I'm not good at and working on) for that manner focus on the eccentric portion of the exercise. The part where you lower yourself. Don't do silly knee pushups until you're strong enough. Get down to the nitty gritty and do regular pushup from with arms extended and toes on the floor. From here lower yourself to the floor for a 3-4 second count then as soon as you get to the floor get on your hands and knees and start over. Do not even try to push yourself up until you can get the eccentric part of the exercise down. And once you do this a few times a week you'll have it down in no time. And your push up will increase immensely. GLHF

dixiewhiskey

Hi Liz,
By half way down, do you mean your elbows are at 45 degrees rather than 90 degrees?
If this is the case, I would think you would be better off doing 'knee' push ups until your strength has increased enough to do 'toe' push ups. The 'knee' ones will give you fuller motion in the muscles you work whilst doing push ups, more than the half push ups .... if that makes sense! ;o)

I agree. I am in the same predicament right now.. I can do a couple of reg push ups but then I get stuck and can't push down all the way.

Capt_Apollo

they both do.

do as many as you can on your toes, and then switch to the modified version.

also, make sure you're doing them right. you'd be surprised how many people do them wrong.

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/02/15/proper-push-up/

lizlkbg

I was going to say Victoria's Secret. Clearly I missed the point of this post...

Bwahahahaha!! I TOTALLY need that kind, too!

candylandicous

I've been trying to do push ups too! but it seems impossible for me to get the formation correctly, I cant seem to make my upper back go down, instead my butt goes down :< Well, Leave alone push ups I cant get it right with half push-ups either

eslcity

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eslcity

you don't have to go all the way to the floor... it is a 45degree or your arms should become level to the floor... that is a standard pushup

one thing you can do is also work on incline push-ups

steve0820

Like other people have posted, try incline push ups, with full range of motion, the higher the incline, the easier it will be. Also, work on some isometric push ups. Have yourself in the start position, hold for a few secs, lower a few inches, hold, lower, hold......