Push ups

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Marisela170
Marisela170 Posts: 48 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So it might sound a little stupid but I can’t do a push up. I tried using my stairs and gradually getting closer to the floor. I found that way to be quite helpful except I could only do about 5 at a time because of a previous injury from a car accident if I put too much weight on it for too long it starts to pop and crack and then it starts hurting. I did also try doing push ups on my knees but someone told me that it wasn’t an effective way to build enough strength to be able to do the other kind

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  • Onedaywriter
    Onedaywriter Posts: 324 Member
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    Try doing bench or floor presses with a barbell or dumbells or bag of rice or anything that challenges your pressing muscles. Those pushups will come!!
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,179 Member
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    First ask your dr. If there are limitations for an injury, you need to respect that. I have a past injury preventing me from doing some moves. If I push through, I will not become better at it, I will become disabled.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,392 Member
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    I never manage to do pushups Until I did. I started on the back of my sofa, and when I could do 3x8 I had nothing else to use and moved to the floor. I found stairs simply too awkward. I did do slow negatives there until I could do 3x8 proper and slow ones, then started trying to do pushups. I'm now at 8/6/5 and fill up the rest with negatives. For the negatives I only counted those that really were very slow and controlled. Crashing down didn't count. Did the trick for me.
  • MichelleMcKeeRN
    MichelleMcKeeRN Posts: 450 Member
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    I have previous shoulder injuries too. If something hurts, I just stop doing it immediately. Lateral raises cause a flair up of the pain so I avoid them. By staying away from irritating exercises, it keeps the pain away and allows me to continue my workouts. Hope it helps!
  • Nbaker0909
    Nbaker0909 Posts: 102 Member
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    I started on my knees and then worked on the negatives like Yirara said. A trainer at the gym gave me this advice. I’m slowly working my way up to more on my toes, but I still switch to the negatives or my knees if I need to in order to finish a set. My arms have always been my weakest muscles so it’s slow progress but I’m getting there. Good luck!
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
    edited July 2020
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    If your goal is to perform a push up then certainly variations of the push up should be implemented.

    I ask if you are using other forms of resistance training currently to progress strength towards that goal as well? Is so, can you list and give some general training history including your training logs/programming with average intensity range?

    Generally speaking, if someone has the goal to perform a push up. I literally would focus on full body strength gains with the goal of performing the push up eventually as we progress.

    Pressing motions will generally be a good ROI e.g., benching & variations that are more specific to the task though as mentioned, though a foundation of a well balanced routine is optimal.
  • threeyears2024
    threeyears2024 Posts: 52 Member
    edited July 2020
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    Knee push ups are not bad. It helps build the pushing strength. Bench press, overhead press or anything pressing up also helps with the pushing strength. And the getting down part gets easier with static exercise like plank hold and the negatives work for stabilizing the core and quad muscle. Following this queue of getting down slower in 1-2-3 and holding it for another 1 second there and then pushing up on knee for 5-8 reps and holding plank for 30+ seconds with a hollow body really helped with my push ups.

    Edit : Keeping the palms slightly outward helps with not flaring the elbows.
  • scollis11
    scollis11 Posts: 21 Member
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    Wall push ups are a great strengthener as well as banded push ups using these types of bands:
    https://www.amazon.com/Strength-Training-Resistance-Exercise-Flexbands/dp/B088FBJVNL/ref=sr_1_6?crid=1O667DU5NFXXX&dchild=1&keywords=small+bands+for+working+out&qid=1594903790&sprefix=small+bands,aps,151&sr=8-6

    Place the band on your arms right above your elbows. It will help to keep your elbows in.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,392 Member
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    With regards to knee pushups: I never managed to get to full pushups via them. Plus the way you use your muscles is somewhat different. I would do inclined ones and then work on negative proper ones. Maybe mix both for a while until you can do quite a few negatives ones. Then try to add just a single proper one, and build up from there.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,454 Member
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    threeyears2024 wrote: »
    Knee push ups are not bad. It helps build the pushing strength. Bench press, overhead press or anything pressing up also helps with the pushing strength. And the getting down part gets easier with static exercise like plank hold and the negatives work for stabilizing the core and quad muscle. Following this queue of getting down slower in 1-2-3 and holding it for another 1 second there and then pushing up on knee for 5-8 reps and holding plank for 30+ seconds with a hollow body really helped with my push ups.

    Edit : Keeping the palms slightly outward helps with not flaring the elbows.

    Core strength is important to doing pushups. Knee pushups take much of the core activation out of the movement.

    While not "bad" knee pushups don't allow building strength in muscles key to doing " regular" pushups.

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