push ups

[rachel]

I can't believe it! I can do regular push ups now. I guess I finally built my arms up enough.No more knee push ups for me.

 

[Jill666]

Way to go. Keep it up- and go for quality. The quantity will take care of itself.:boing2:

 

[Jas0n]

Originally posted by rachel
I can't believe it! I can do regular push ups now. I guess I finally built my arms up enough.No more knee push ups for me.

Excellent!!! Way to go!

 

[jfarnsworth]

Excellent!! Keep up the good work and strive for one more then try for one more after that and so on.

 

[MartialArtist]

Marine and plyometric push-ups, here I come

 

[KenpoGirl]

I continue to have a love hate relationship with pushups. I use to really enjoy doing them. All different ways regular, wide, at the rib cage/narrow and tricep pushups. Now I was never a push up machine, only ever doing 20 of either at one time (30 on good days).

But since I've been back I've really been struggling with them. On a good day I can do 15 in a set, but then 20 minutes later I can maybe only manage 5, and during the week they get harder to do. Including getting read faced and out of breath, and I do breath on each push up, breathing out and I raise myself up.

Am I doing anything wrong? Or is just the usuall advice, practise practise practise.

 

[Kirk]

WTG Rachel, congrats!

 

[Jay Bell]

But since I've been back I've really been struggling with them. On a good day I can do 15 in a set, but then 20 minutes later I can maybe only manage 5, and during the week they get harder to do. Including getting read faced and out of breath, and I do breath on each push up, breathing out and I raise myself up.

Hrm...without seeing it I can't really say. A lot of people that are doing pushups *feel* that they are properly aligned through their body...only to have things out of wack. That could be a hinderance.

As you breath....does the breath stop when the motion stops...both up and down? If not...try it out. No matter how slow or quickly the motion happens, try having the breath end as the motion does.

Oh yeah..and practice practice practice

 

[TheLady]

My chiropractor said to do pushups from the knuckles rather than palm down. It's something like 15X less pressure on the wrist by keeping it straight.

Now I just need speech recognition software so I don't have to type

Janice

 

[deadhand31]

I pretested for my black belt last night. I've always had problems with doing pushups, but my sabunim ordered EVERYONE to do 40, on our knuckles. I had difficulty, but since he kept screaming at me, I was able to knock them out. I think i overdid it, because now there's a bunch of little red spots all over my face from bursting blood vessels. I can't wait to see what's going to happen at the real test.

 

[Kroy]

You'll be doing Bruce Lee two finger pushups before you know it.

 

[Matt Stone]

Originally posted by deadhand31
I think i overdid it, because now there's a bunch of little red spots all over my face from bursting blood vessels.

Stop holding your breath. If you do that, as you exert yourself your blood pressure will build up, and the smaller capillaries will pop. Won't really hurt you in the long run, but you sure do look silly while you heal...

For those of you who have difficulty with push ups, here are some things we Army folks do -

1) Every hour, on the hour or half hour, get down and knock out some. If the muscles aren't being told repeatedly that they need to grow, they won't do what you want. You don't have to do 100 or anything silly. For my fitness test, my maximum at my age (34) is 74 push ups in two minutes. When I get down on the hour, I knock out 35 to 40. Then I get up and go back to work.

If you have trouble with how many you can do, set yourself a goal. If doing 15 is hard, do sets of 10 until 10 is easy. Then move up to 15, and so on.

Using Pavel Tsatsouline's techniques helps, too. When you do your push up, tense your butt, your thighs, and your abdomen (as if you were about to take a punch), and really concentrate on pressing away from the ground as you screw your hands/claws into the ground. You should be able to knock out at least 3 - 5 more than usual...

2) Whenever you train, aim to do at least 75% of your goal. If you want to be able to do 20 in, say, a minute, then be sure to train at least 15 each minute when you do them.

3) Don't quit pushing! If you are doing "normal" push ups, and you get to the point that you can no longer push your body weight up, go to your knees and keep pushing.

And lastly, don't knock doing push ups on your knees as a valid training method. It actually changes the focus of the exercise, and you can get quite a workout from doing push ups on your knees as well as the "normal" way.

Just a question for you knuckle push up advocates - what is the purpose of doing them in your school? Do they serve a purpose, or is it just a way your teacher uses to "smoke" you? I know why we do them in our school (when we do them), but I'm curious about other folks...

Gambarimasu.
:asian: :tank: :asian:

 

[theletch1]

First off let me say..... Way to go Rachel!!

As to why we do them on our knuckles in our school.... my instructor says I'm not allowed to discuss that...no wait, I thought I was in another thread, We do them to strengthen the wrist for putting more power into our punches and to toughen the knuckles.

 

[MantisMan]

Women who do push-ups are so sexy

Any plans for a fitness video? {ooh - the cheek!}

 

[Jill666]

It's true that the knuckle push-up eases pressure on the wrist, and I try to vary my pushups. Since I do bench dips as well, that becomes a lot of weight in an unnatural position on the wrist.

The other reason as someone (letch?) said is the strength in the forearms seems to increase- but I don't know for sure if that is fact, I just hope it is the case I just did a boat load of forearm curls tonight and it BURNS.

I like Yiliquan1's idea of banging out a few pushups on a regular basis so the muscles become accustomed. Also the spirit- if you get used to doing them, you stop seeing it as such a hurdle and it becomes easier to deal with altogether. But 74 in two minutes!?! :erg:

 

[Matt Stone]

Originally posted by Jill666
It's true that the knuckle push-up eases pressure on the wrist, and I try to vary my pushups. Since I do bench dips as well, that becomes a lot of weight in an unnatural position on the wrist.

Admittedly, there are a lot of things that put unnatural pressure on many of the joints in martial arts. The thing of it is, however, that through conditioning, those unnatural positions become more comfortable and easier to do... Most MA stances are "unnatural" when we first learn them, but after long hours of practice, they feel totally second nature.

The other reason as someone (letch?) said is the strength in the forearms seems to increase- but I don't know for sure if that is fact, I just hope it is the case I just did a boat load of forearm curls tonight and it BURNS.

I used to do tons and tons of forearm curls when I was younger. Genetically I am predisposed to large Popeye forearms anyway. Combine the two, and I have some pretty solid looking arms and fists... That having been said, I get a MUCH better workout with kettlebells than I ever did with dumbbells. Doing a few sets of swings with kettlebells gives me a hell of a pump, and my grip is far better having to hold onto 16kg flying through the air than holding a similiarly sized dumbbell. Also, I reach(ed) muscle failure with forearm curls after about 3 sets of 50 reps (worked the hell out of them!). With KB, I don't reach muscle failure but I feel like I worked a lot more, and more efficiently.

I like Yiliquan1's idea of banging out a few pushups on a regular basis so the muscles become accustomed. Also the spirit- if you get used to doing them, you stop seeing it as such a hurdle and it becomes easier to deal with altogether. But 74 in two minutes!?! :erg:

When you are doing push ups all the time, it becomes just one more annoying exercise. When I first went into the military, physical exercise intimidated me. After basic and all, it's no big deal... And 74 in two minutes is for a 34 year old. To max the sit up event, I have to do 84 in two minutes. With a little training, it's no big deal at all.

But I really do recommend Pavel's Power to the People program if you want to get strong and not gain ridiculous mass.

Gambarimasu.
:asian: :tank: :asian:

 

[Cryozombie]

Originally posted by Yiliquan1
When you are doing push ups all the time, it becomes just one more annoying exercise. When I first went into the military, physical exercise intimidated me. After basic and all, it's no big deal...

MORE PT, DRILL SGT, MORE PT! MAKE IT HURT DRILL SGT. MAKE IT HURT.

OOOH... Damn. Flashbacks to Basic. Ack.

 

[Matt Stone]

Funny you should say that, since I used to be a Drill Sergeant...



GET SOME! GET SOME! GET SOME!

Gamarimasu.
:asian: :tank: :asian:

 

[lost_tortoise]

Kudos to you Rachel!!

You might be surprised by how many women (and even men) won't make an effort to accomplish this valuable exercise. I would emphasize quality over quantity until you are able to do 90 or so straight. Then jump to plyometric push-ups. I speak from experience when I say that plyometric push-ups will boost your ballistic strength exponentially!

 

[SRyuFighter]

Originally posted by rachel
I can't believe it! I can do regular push ups now. I guess I finally built my arms up enough.No more knee push ups for me.

Wonderful! Congratulations! Keep up the good work!