Push up help

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  • PaulFromEssex
    PaulFromEssex Posts: 245
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    I too always wanted to do push-ups like a man!

    Same here!!:laugh:
  • Crankstr
    Crankstr Posts: 3,958 Member
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    Just an FYI - the female body is not necessarily made to do pushups. Although many women can - there are far more that cannot. A better exercise by far is a plank. Many will not agree, and this will probably start an argument with all those negative nellies on here, but I have been told by more than one physical therapist and trainers. It has to do with the size of the muscles in our backs, shoulders and chest. Can women do them, YES, are there better exercises to get the same or better results, YES.
    Good luck if this is your goal - I do the girl pushups and do other exercises instead.

    so, if someone has a different opinion, they are considered a negative nellie?
  • samlankford
    samlankford Posts: 334
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    2 years ago when I did the insanity fit test I could barely do 1 pushup, by the end of month 1 I could do 17 in the 1 min that they give you.. by the end of month 2 I was able to do 30 in a min... there is NO shame in doing the girly ones.. those can be made to be challenging as well.. Plank is great, that will work you core, your legs and your upper body.. good luck and take it one day at a time...
  • lveh8lve
    lveh8lve Posts: 162 Member
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    You can use an exercise ball as well. Start with the ball under your hips and gradually push back to your toes. The further back, the harder the push up! I have been doing that and so far it's working.
  • Gabriall
    Gabriall Posts: 101 Member
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    this is brilliant, ive been working on this myself recently too... my knees just arnt up for the girlie ones any more and it feels rubbish being in a martial arts class and being the only one doing them like that. will have a go at reducing hieghts method :)
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
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    I started doing them on a bench at the gym. I'm now up to 3 sets of 10 on the floor going all the way down until my boobs almost touch the ground (and I have little boobs, big boobs can get in the way, which is the only REAL reason I could say seeing women's bodies are meant for pushups). I'm about ready to move to decline where I elevate my feet.
  • quirkytizzy
    quirkytizzy Posts: 4,052 Member
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    This is really good advice! I've been trying to do them, too, and they are hard! My elbows hurt but it's my legs that give out first! I'm just doing them little by little. I can't get anywhere near as low to the ground as the video instructor, but I can do a couple more than I was able to last week. I'm trying to add just one more in every few days. You'll get stronger - you'll be able to do it.
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
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    Just an FYI - the female body is not necessarily made to do pushups. Although many women can - there are far more that cannot. A better exercise by far is a plank. Many will not agree, and this will probably start an argument with all those negative nellies on here, but I have been told by more than one physical therapist and trainers. It has to do with the size of the muscles in our backs, shoulders and chest. Can women do them, YES, are there better exercises to get the same or better results, YES.
    Good luck if this is your goal - I do the girl pushups and do other exercises instead.

    so, if someone has a different opinion, they are considered a negative nellie?

    Especially when we are the ones telling her she CAN do something rather than she can't, we are the "negative" ones?
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,248 Member
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    You know what made a big difference for me? Nutrition. Once I started aiming for a minimum of 100g of protein a day, everything got easier. Pushups, crunches, planks, running... I'm not a low-carber by any stretch of the imagination, but getting adequate protein made an amazing improvement in my strength and endurance.
  • DouMc
    DouMc Posts: 1,689 Member
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    bump. i would love to be able to do them too!
  • extraordinary_machine
    extraordinary_machine Posts: 3,028 Member
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    Just an FYI - the female body is not necessarily made to do pushups. Although many women can - there are far more that cannot. A better exercise by far is a plank. Many will not agree, and this will probably start an argument with all those negative nellies on here, but I have been told by more than one physical therapist and trainers. It has to do with the size of the muscles in our backs, shoulders and chest. Can women do them, YES, are there better exercises to get the same or better results, YES.
    Good luck if this is your goal - I do the girl pushups and do other exercises instead.

    Yes, because our muscles are smaller, it makes it more difficult to do them, but I don't think that means that we "aren't meant to do them." We have the same muscles as men, you know.

    If you were to say, "Women aren't meant to ejaculate sperm..." I'd totally agree. But women not being meant to do push ups, that's frelling ridiculous.

    eta: OP, this website is great to get you started doing push-ups. I used it for several months and while I never got to the 100 at a time stage, I could do 50 push-ups at once. http://hundredpushups.com/#sthash.rYiLz4FB.dpbs
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,248 Member
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    Especially when we are the ones telling her she CAN do something rather than she can't, we are the "negative" ones?

    A-frickin-men!!! :drinker:

    No one's saying it's easy for everyone, but there's no reason you can't strengthen your body to the point where you can do them. I didn't think I could run, because it didn't come easy or naturally to me. I had to learn to run. I had to build up the endurance and strength to be able to run. I'm glad I didn't listen to anyone who said, "You're just not meant to run."
  • VelociMama
    VelociMama Posts: 3,119 Member
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    I started out doing wall pushups then graduated to chair then eventually doing floor version.

    You definitely CAN do them, but you'll have to build up to it. Just like anything difficult, you have to work for it.

    There are a lot of great suggestions here.
  • PaulFromEssex
    PaulFromEssex Posts: 245
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    You can use an exercise ball as well. Start with the ball under your hips and gradually push back to your toes. The further back, the harder the push up! I have been doing that and so far it's working.

    Excellent advise. You can use your bed, settee (sofa) cushions, pillars etc if you do not have a ball.
  • vjohn04
    vjohn04 Posts: 2,276 Member
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    Females can definitely do pushups! It just takes practice...... Start slow if you can't.... drop down hold the plank... then try levels, and just continue to try.... eventually you'll be able to do one, and then two, and then so on....

    For me, I found that core strength was important too, so practicing plank definitely helped

    That's how I did it, and now I can keep up and do more to failure than most of the guys in my heavy bag class. tee hee hee :-)


    et : fix my crappy explanation.
  • Samantha44145
    Samantha44145 Posts: 66 Member
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    I started from none...I'm doing about 100/day now. Last week I had a couple days over 200. (I don't usually do them straight in 1 set but in sets of 20-25 reps.)

    I'm big into calisthenics and I don't do much resistance training. I alternate the type of pushups I do all the time - it's important to let muscles rest a couple days between overloading them.

    Try these:

    Negative Pushups (Wide Stance) - Lay down. Push yourself up from a the ground. Hold at the top and lower yourself down. Repeat. All the way up and all the way down.

    Incline pushups - Using the Smith Machine....put the bar at the lowest setting. Do as many pushups as you can at that height. When you max out, stretch your arms out and raise the bar one setting. Max out at that height. When you're ready to start back up bring it up one more notch. Repeat this until you get to your goal number.

    Up/Down Planks - Get into a standard plank. Drop down to a plank on your elbows. Raise up to a plank on your hands. Drop down to your elbows. Raise up to your hands. Repeat over and over again (and don't forget to keep your belly sucked in!).

    There are a ton of push ups that you can do...Inch-worms, scorpion, alternate grip, medicine ball, etc...and a ton of upper body calisthenic exercises that you can do...e.g. crab walk, bear crawl, bench dips, etc....Get Creative!
  • lumox1212
    lumox1212 Posts: 152
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    go to you tube find tony hortons 11 laws of health and fitness. fast foward till the 2 ladies go up on stage. he shows them how to do push ups and not be stressed about it. just tryin' to help not pimp :happy:
  • FullOfWin
    FullOfWin Posts: 1,414 Member
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    Just an FYI - the female body is not necessarily made to do pushups. Although many women can - there are far more that cannot. A better exercise by far is a plank. Many will not agree, and this will probably start an argument with all those negative nellies on here, but I have been told by more than one physical therapist and trainers. It has to do with the size of the muscles in our backs, shoulders and chest. Can women do them, YES, are there better exercises to get the same or better results, YES.
    Good luck if this is your goal - I do the girl pushups and do other exercises instead.

    Sounds like an excuse not to work hard towards a difficult goal.

    Also, planks are in no way a substitute for push ups.
  • Martucha123
    Martucha123 Posts: 1,093 Member
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    I started doing wall push ups, then I moved to table, chair, step and floor. Do as many as you can, move to the next level once you can do more then 20. I wasn't able to do one, now I can do 20. Also, I wa doing bench press at the same time and I think it helped me a lot
  • dinos
    dinos Posts: 1,390 Member
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    I think bench presses is the way to go. You can start with low weights and build gradually. The exercise ball sounds like very good advise as well, but I've never tried it.

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