Push-ups!

Saucy_lil_Minx
Saucy_lil_Minx Posts: 3,302 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My husband and I are in a debate over how pushups should be done. He said you need to do them very slowly push up and hold and slowly lower yourself down to touch your nose on the floor, and hold. Then back up again. I can not do that! As a matter of fact I can only lower myself to about four inches off the ground (off- balance push ups with one leg lifted off ground). I also move very fluid up down, up down without a pause. I generally do five and rest in a plank postion, then five more, and rest in plank, and so on until I can not push anymore out. I know he is a guy, and guys are suppose to have more muscle mass, and that maybe why I can not do push ups the same as him, but does that make my way wrong? I'm seeing a difference in my arms, and how many I am able to push out, but should I really go to the girlly knee version to get lower to the ground, or keep doing it my way until I am stronger, and see if I can eventually get to his kind of push up?

Replies

  • CoderGal
    CoderGal Posts: 6,800 Member
    I go nose to floor, personally. I found that when I was weaker and couldn't do them properly I couldn't go down low enough but if I didn't push myself lower I could do a bunch of half reps but still couldn't do one full one. I'd work on getting up from ground without doing anything funny with your backside. Knees to ground if you have to. There are little phone apps that you put in front of your face that count your reps for you by pushing your nose against it when you're down.

    Same thing goes for pull ups and everything else. If you can only do half reps, you're not working the muscles that are going to be able to help you do full reps, so you're not going to be able to do a full rep. Ignoring your weak muscles isn't going to make those muscles stronger.

    It has nothing to do with a girl. The same thing goes for men. You can see men on the bench press doing a bunch of 'half' reps only slightly bending their arms and not bringing the bar anywhere near their chest. It's always more impressive when you can use a full range of motion if you ask me.
  • seryph_alethea
    seryph_alethea Posts: 16 Member
    I can't get my nose to the ground while doing push ups, my boobs hit the ground way before then!
  • Saucy_lil_Minx
    Saucy_lil_Minx Posts: 3,302 Member
    I know I am getting stronger, b/c when I do my arm curls I am now up to 60 lbs., and I am losing the bat wings I had. I just can' t seem to lower myself down enough to touch my nose. Leg lifted off the ground or not my elbows just won't do it. I keep an excellent plank posture, and seriously hoover just about that nose touching point, the biggest question I have is slow and hold better than fluid up and down. I am sure as I keep improving my arm strength I will get to the nose touching stage. I have gone from absolutly no upper body strenght to muscle def. starting. I have a long way to go, however, I think his way makes the muscle more tired faster.
  • Joreanasaurous
    Joreanasaurous Posts: 1,384 Member
    I can't get my nose to the ground while doing push ups, my boobs hit the ground way before then!

    Me too.
  • NoelleS85
    NoelleS85 Posts: 89
    You don't need to go slow or hold. As long as you have correct form (straight - no butt in the air or arched back), you're fine. And then there's different types of push-ups, of course. You don't have to go on your knees, just do them the way you do them and you will get stronger and you'll be able to go lower.

    I personally love fly push-ups, I go fast, but I can also hold.

    I also LOVE the infamous push-up jacks :)
  • CoderGal
    CoderGal Posts: 6,800 Member
    I know I am getting stronger, b/c when I do my arm curls I am now up to 60 lbs., and I am losing the bat wings I had. I just can' t seem to lower myself down enough to touch my nose. Leg lifted off the ground or not my elbows just won't do it. I keep an excellent plank posture, and seriously hoover just about that nose touching point, the biggest question I have is slow and hold better than fluid up and down. I am sure as I keep improving my arm strength I will get to the nose touching stage. I have gone from absolutly no upper body strenght to muscle def. starting. I have a long way to go, however, I think his way makes the muscle more tired faster.

    I know what you mean, I was in the same situation. I tend to pause at the bottom but I wouldn't call it a solid hold. I'd just concentrate on getting the moves down, who cares as long as you're keeping your form. If he's saying you have to hold for so many seconds and such I think he's trying to cheat lol. And yes, his way would tire out your muscles faster. It's really up to you, if you want to hold stead or if you want to go for more reps.

    My issue is you were doing the same thing I was doing. If you can't touch your nose now, if you keep doing what you're doing you're going to get stronger but you're favoring a different muscle group, and your continiously working the group that can already work its way through a pushup now. Where as if you concentrate on touching down you'll be working the muscles that are weak and giving you the problem of not being able to do a full rep, which is what you want to be doing. It took me a good long time till I got my stuborn self. I was stuck at the point of doing halves for a long time. Then I continued to struggle pushing myself up from stop and lowering trying not to collapse. And while I did collapse and get frustrated I found myself getting stronger a lot faster. And if you have a friend it helps if they push up your core if you're to weak.
  • Saucy_lil_Minx
    Saucy_lil_Minx Posts: 3,302 Member
    I am just happy I can do push ups now. I had so little upper body strength before that I could do 5, and had to stop. I am now up to 35 to 40 before I get too tired. I will do 7 to 8 sets of 5, and a 30 second plank hold in between. If I did them slow and hold like my husband I might push out 3 sets of five, and would have to stop. It's kind of like the monkey bars when you were little. If you tried to do one at a time, or wait too long before you moved to the next one your arms were too tired to finish, but if you kept moving you could get through them, and do it again.
  • Zylayna
    Zylayna Posts: 728 Member
    I can't get my nose to the ground while doing push ups, my boobs hit the ground way before then!

    Agreed!!
  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
    I do push ups to tone my upper body, not to impress anyone with my form. If you keep your back reasonably straight and do enough motion that your ears at least even with your elbows going down and you elbows get below your chest on the way up, you will get the benefit of the exercise. It is nice to be consistent so that the number you do is sort of a unit of measure, but I don't think it is a big deal. I just do about the right number until it is hard to do another and then move on to the next exercise.
  • Abells
    Abells Posts: 756 Member
    most women do chest to ground obvi :)

    You don't have to do them slow but you should at least hit chest to ground. You want to make sure you have full range of motion before you progress. So anyone who can't go all the way down should go to their knees to ensure full range of motion until they can do them off their toes which will come eventually
  • H_Factor
    H_Factor Posts: 1,722 Member
    Your husband is doing one variation of a push-up....a variation that is more difficult than your basic push-up. But, there's no reason to try variations of the push-up until you build up some strength from doing regular push-ups. You're doing just fine.

    and, if your hubby pipes up again, tell him that until he's able to do 10 solid push-ups with his feet on a stability ball (without the ball moving) and hands on a bench...with the pauses that he likes to include.... you don't want to hear jack crap from him.
  • Saucy_lil_Minx
    Saucy_lil_Minx Posts: 3,302 Member
    My chest is maybe a half an inch from the ground, and my ear definitely at least even with my elbow bend, and I fully rise up. My back is super straight. I have told my husband (who used to be very built, before I fattend him up with good cooking, and he got lazy) to back off I am not trying to look like he used to. I am just wanting to see muscle instead of bat wing pudge. Most def. getting there slowly....lol I think his advice is trying to come from a good place, however I don't think he realizes how little upper body strength I had to begin with.

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