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(Girl) Push ups

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maxiefit
maxiefit Posts: 53 Member
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Any women in the group doing modified push ups on their knees? I started out doing them that way, but now feel like I'm too strong to get anything out of them, but still too weak to do standard push ups well. Every time I have to do them in a workout, I'm torn between going for modified or standards and whichever I choose to do I'm always sorry afterward.

Anyone have tips on how to transition from modified to standard successfully? I'm starting to feel like this is a similar challenge to trying to go from chair-assisted pull ups to unassisted, if you know what I mean.

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  • kzeug
    kzeug Posts: 21 Member
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    I am only 8 days into P90X3 and I started with girl push ups like you. I haven't been able to do regular pushups since I was freshman in high school and that was over 10 years ago! This week I decided to push myself and I start EVERY push up exercise in reg. push up position. I can't go as low, but that is okay. I can now do 5 push ups in a row! You need to push yourself. I sure surprised myself and I bet you will to. Good luck!
  • mjwarford
    mjwarford Posts: 35 Member
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    When I start each set I do full push ups then drop to my knees to complete the set. For example in Challenge, my push up number was 10. I do the first 5 on my toes, last five on my knees. Next time my number may be 11 or 12 and I might go for 6 on my toes.
  • Smoked33
    Smoked33 Posts: 186 Member
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    Great suggestions already! I started with 'girl' pushups when doing P90X the first time did exactly as stated, start with full and transition to knees mid set if needed. One thing I'll add..get pushup stands and go for max depth when on your knees...your chest should hit the ground. When starting with standard, don't go so deep, work up to depth as you get stronger.
  • maxiefit
    maxiefit Posts: 53 Member
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    I always go in to pushups saying I'm going to do them on my toes or do X number on my toes before dropping to my knees, but then I start and my form is bad or my ROM is crappy and I get discouraged and just go to my knees. Then I feel bad because I didn't work as hard as I could have. It's a ridiculous cycle.
    But I did some reading on the boards here and noticed a few people saying to do regular pushups but focus on the eccentric portion - so 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.
    I'm going to try that I think. I don't think I believe that pushups on my knees are going to get me doing standard push ups.
  • groundhawg
    groundhawg Posts: 121 Member
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    I keep track of "unassisted" and "assisted." I'm to the point where I can do half of the workouts or a set off of my knees.

    My tallies look like this when I write them down:
    standard pushup: 5u/6a
    military : 3u 7a
    etc.

    Then at the end of the workout I tally how many more unassisted moves I did than the week before, how much more weight I've added, and how many more moves I completed. Its nice to see how much the numbers go up!

    And if you can only do 1 unassisted move at first, do that, its so much better for the core! It will keep strengthening it, and maybe someday we will all be at unassisted :D
  • AngDenSti
    AngDenSti Posts: 184
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    I started with knee push-ups, and then moved to spread eagle on toes push-ups. The wider your kegs, the easier. I can finally do all my push-ups on my toes, feet together!! You'll get there!! :)
  • tdawg875
    tdawg875 Posts: 29 Member
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    So happy to see this topic!! I did The Challenge work out last night and I couldn't do any regular push ups. I kinda expected there to to be one person in the video doing push ups from the knees to show us to how to progress to regular push ups. I also bought the pull up bar with the Assist mechanism and can't do any pull ups. Something to work up to. :)
  • jsantus
    jsantus Posts: 53 Member
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    I started with knee push-ups, and then moved to spread eagle on toes push-ups. The wider your kegs, the easier. I can finally do all my push-ups on my toes, feet together!! You'll get there!! :)

    ^This is a great suggestion for those of you that are in between knee push-ups and regular ones.
  • maxiefit
    maxiefit Posts: 53 Member
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    Since we first talked about this I've made my best effort to do as many pushups as possible on my toes, then switching to negatives, and finally dropping to my knees if I really can't take it. I think it's helping - I feel like my ROM on my toes is getting better!

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