Push up help

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."

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.

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!

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.

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.

Someone might have mentioned this (I didn't read through every post) but you can also try eccentric pushups. Start in the up position and get your form right, then slowly lower yourself as slowly as you can towards the floor while staying in good form.

If you collapse... no prob. Take a breather for a halfstep then get up and do it again. I went from 0 pushups (regular or girlie) to 30 on-the-knees pushups to almost 10 regular.... almost.. gonna get that last one soon!

I have tried many times in my history of exercise to do real push ups. NOT the little girly ones, but regular push ups. Who has started from being able to do none to being able to do many? I don't have access to a gym, but I do have dumbells at home. Are there any other exercises that can help strenghten the muscles used doing pushups that help get me there?

And just settling for the girly ones or just one or two regular ones is not an option. I am going for bigger and better here. This is a goal I have set.

I couldn't do one proper push up before I joined this site in 2011. I started doing the 30 Day Shred and finally that got me into managing to do them, good old Jillian!

I always thought it was because I had weak arms, but that's not what it's down to, you need a strong core.

i can now do 300 push ups in one day. So keep trying you WILL get there.

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.

What rubbish, so we don't have arms and cores which is what anyone needs to do a push up.

IMO, the only way to get strong enough to do "real" push-ups is to start doing them.
You may only be able to do one when you start, but slowly you'll work your way up.

I agree with this. I decided I wanted to do pushups and could only do 3 girlies. I worked up to 3 sets of 15 (or 15/15/then usually 12) but was so frustrated each time I tried a regular one and couldn't go more than a couple of inches down and up. After doing some reading online, I settled on doing the 100 pushup challenge approach. Since I couldn't do even one full regular, I started with day 1 (2/3/2/2/3+) going as far as I could, again at the beginning it was only a couple of inches. After about a month, I am finally able to do full pushups and ready to move onto day 2! I must add - I am a 51 year old woman with 40 more pounds to lose who previously only walked and did light yoga for exercise.

I used to be able to do no push ups. Now I can do about 18 with my feet on a chair and my hands on the floor

Stick at it, and look for ways to make slow progressions. Also do lots of planks. A lot of people can't do full push ups well because of being unable to hold the position more than because of arm strength.

Regards you last question - it's better to do strength training regularly, but not every day, because your muscles grow and repair themselves when you rest.

Another question then. Is it better to do it daily, or every other day, just a few days a week? Based on your experience, which would be best for starting out.

As part of a balanced routine that incorporates each of

quad dominant leg (squat variants)
hamstring dominant leg (deadlift varians)
horizontal push (bench\push ups)
horizontal pull (rows)
vertical push (overhead press\handstand push ups)
vertical pull (pull ups)

Another question then. Is it better to do it daily, or every other day, just a few days a week? Based on your experience, which would be best for starting out.

As part of a balanced routine that incorporates each of

quad dominant leg (squat variants)
hamstring dominant leg (deadlift varians)
horizontal push (bench\push ups)
horizontal pull (rows)
vertical push (overhead press\handstand push ups)
vertical pull (pull ups)

*like*

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?

^^^ this.

and someone who says "women CAN..." is a negative nellie, but someone who says "most women CAN'T..." is not....?


however did the human race survive the palaeolithic era if most women are too weak to do a single push-up....?

women picked berries while men took care of them. DUH!

i dont think the ones on your knees are a good stepping stone...


what worked for me was doing them from a higher surface ( still in a straight plank position), and gradually moving down...

i started of the edge of my sleigh bed, then counter height, then the 3rd step, and now i am doing them from the first step!

its taken a while. but my upper body was very weak from back problems.

This is exactly what I did..starting from my dresser which was about chest height, then moving to the weight bench...I was able to move several regular pushups within about 5 weeks...that is working out 3x weekly with weights...

I just did my first full push up! WOOT! Can't wait to do 2! THEN 3! And then 4!!.....