Pushups

kristofferbas · September 2011

I have never, ever ever in my life, been able to do "proper" pushups. I've always had to do the ones on the knees. I still do it and as I'm doing Power 90, I do many of them every other day. Today I tried to do a couple of the "proper" ones, and to my surprise I was actually able to do a couple of them, only thing was, I wasn't able to go as deep down to the floor as I would like, not as deep as I can doing the ones on my knees. Now to the big question, is it better to do the ones on my knees and to come deeper down to the floor, or is it still a good workout doing "proper" ones but not as deep? Of course the goal is to do proper deep ones some day, but in the meantime?

Thanks.
/k

SunSwingsLow · September 2011

Stick with proper form always. There is no sense doing something wrong simply because somone says its the "right" way.

Lots of guys at the gym grab way to much weight and then swing it all around and dont even work the intended muscle group.

In short, get stronger with knee push ups and when you get strong enough to do the "proper" ones you can do them the right way, not halfway.

Good Luck.

SergeantSunshine_reused · September 2011

Form first! Consider "proper" pushup to be like upping your weight one day :]

You will get there!

CatMauro · September 2011

My job requires me to do pushups as part of the fitness test and what we get people to do who aren't quite there is do as many as you can in the full mode and when you can't do any more like that then drop to your knees. You need to train the muscles and doing them half *kitten* all the time isn't going to do it. Another way to get stronger and to get the form doing is to start on the stairs. Start with your feet on the ground and your hands on whatever step you can do a full pushup on, as you get stronger, move your feet out and your hands down one step. Also what you might be considering not low enough could actually be the right depth. You should not go any lower than where your triceps are parallel to the ground. Any lower and you could be doing more damage than good.

traveleric · September 2011

I agree and think catherinewoodall's post is good, except I would disagree with the last point. I believe going as low as you can to the floor is the way to go, and I reference a program I've been following lately - New Rules of Lifting, aka NROL. The author, Lou Schuler, talks much about proper form and specifically about how low you should go with many different exercises - bench press, squats, dead lifts, etc.. Basically, get as low as you can get with a pushup- where I like touching my nose to the ground.

To answer your question, I would rather do two pushups OFF the knees than doing 10 - 15 pushups ON the knees. You'll just get stronger, faster for it. I'd also think about hitting some weights doing bench presses or dumbbell push presses on a bench. That way you don't have to put full body weight on your chest & arms/wrists and do what you can while working your way up. I appreciate the basics of P90, but hitting some weights would be a great compliment and certainly wouldn't hurt.

Lastly, I know you run a lot - take a read of the book I mention above, NROL. Doing 40-50 minutes of a good weight program burns a surprising amount of calories compared to running. Running's great, don't get me wrong, but a good weight program will get you just as lean and more strength all around.

garlic7girl · September 2011

I agree with Woodall....I was taught by a couple personal trainers going too low you start to damage shoulder muscle/joints. Good form is for a reason to protect our bodies. I would do as she said. But do keep it up because fromwhat you are saying you are improving and that is what we all want....improvement. I was like you I started on knees and progressed to the regular. Proud of you.

Pushups

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