Help! I can't even manage kneeling press-ups.
Options
Replies
-
kenyonhaff wrote: »Another perspective: why push-ups? It's a fine exercise but not all fit people do push-ups. There are many ways to a fit body and you can work up to a set of push ups or swim or do yoga or free weights or any number of upper body exercises.
1 -
kenyonhaff wrote: »Another perspective: why push-ups? It's a fine exercise but not all fit people do push-ups. There are many ways to a fit body and you can work up to a set of push ups or swim or do yoga or free weights or any number of upper body exercises.
Good question. The answer's going to sound a bit facetious but it's not meant that way: because I want to. I certainly wouldn't torture myself to learn an exercise I don't actually want to do. That's why I don't run.
Edited to fix quoting mess up
1 -
leoniemcdee wrote: »kenyonhaff wrote: »Another perspective: why push-ups? It's a fine exercise but not all fit people do push-ups. There are many ways to a fit body and you can work up to a set of push ups or swim or do yoga or free weights or any number of upper body exercises.
Good question. The answer's going to sound a bit facetious but it's not meant that way: because I want to. I certainly wouldn't torture myself to learn an exercise I don't actually want to do. That's why I don't run.
Edited to fix quoting mess up
Then go forth and work up to push ups! I just wanted to be sure you know there are a lot of great exercises. Sometimes people get very narrow and inflexible about what a fitness program should be.1 -
leoniemcdee wrote: »Pretty much what it says in the title. My upper body strength is so poor, I struggle with more than two kneeling press-ups.
I've got the weight loss down (still have some ways to go) and my cardio fitness is always improving but I can't seem to manage even the simplest bodyweight exercises. I fatigue really quickly, even if I take it slow.
Any advice? What can I do to get stronger?
Start with wall press ups. Once you've mastered them then start changing the angle, if you have stairs in your house they would work brilliantly. Start at an almost upright position and then as you master 3 sets of 10 at that angle drop your self down a step so it's a little bit harder. I'm doing something similar with inverse rows using the Smith machine, I started by finding out which position I could comfortably perform 6/5/4 reps with and then added a single rep each session until I was up to 10/10/10, which was when I lowered the bar and started again.
With press-ups I started with working against the wall then progressed to knee. Once I was very comfortable with knee I started slowly progressing to full, keeping with my sets of 10 but doing 1 full and 9 knee, then 2 full 8 knee, etc. A year ago I couldn't even manage a single knee press up, yesterday I did 3 sets of 10 full, simply by progressing in teeny tiny steps.1 -
Reverse push ups can also be a good way to build the strength up for a full push up.1
-
Start with wall press ups. Once you've mastered them then start changing the angle, if you have stairs in your house they would work brilliantly. Start at an almost upright position and then as you master 3 sets of 10 at that angle drop your self down a step so it's a little bit harder. I'm doing something similar with inverse rows using the Smith machine, I started by finding out which position I could comfortably perform 6/5/4 reps with and then added a single rep each session until I was up to 10/10/10, which was when I lowered the bar and started again.
With press-ups I started with working against the wall then progressed to knee. Once I was very comfortable with knee I started slowly progressing to full, keeping with my sets of 10 but doing 1 full and 9 knee, then 2 full 8 knee, etc. A year ago I couldn't even manage a single knee press up, yesterday I did 3 sets of 10 full, simply by progressing in teeny tiny steps.
That's awesome, thanks for sharing!
0 -
starting MARCHING. Pump your arms back and forth like a solider. I do 6 miles a day and have awesome biceps and deltoids and I'm 56. Do push ups against the wall to exhaustion. After working out give that muscle group e 48 hours off so your muscles can rebuild. Then do pushups on the stairs to exhaustion and take 48 hours off. Then do girlie pushups on the floor. Finally do boy pushups. Try putting your arms closer and farther apart to build different muscles. And so what if you only ever have weak arms?0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.9K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.8K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.7K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 400 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.8K Motivation and Support
- 7.9K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.4K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 987 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.4K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions