Push ups, cant do them

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by zombiekicker, Aug 7, 2013.

  1. zombiekicker

    zombiekicker bagpuss

    I workout my arms and chest with dumbells but find doing even a few pushups a struggle, any advice would be appreciated, and im too overweight to do pullups at present
     
  2. Ero-Sennin

    Ero-Sennin Well-Known Member Supporter

    Do pushups, and a lot of them. Every day until you get decent at them. Try to hit 100 every day for a bit then increase the number. Doing isometric planks will also help out.

    Same thing with pull ups no matter what weight you are or how hard they are for you. Just do them, a lot, and you'll get good at them.
     
  3. Wildlings

    Wildlings Baguette Jouster

    Oh! Same situation of mine!
    I realized I can't do one with proper form, I'm working with the incline method. Lots of people I know have used it succesfully.
    Find a bench or something to elevate your hands, make sure your form is correct above all. When you feel comfortable with that height, find a lower bench and work with it. Keep on lowering your hands until you're on the floor!
    And for goodness sake, don't do knee push ups.
     
  4. Wildlings

    Wildlings Baguette Jouster

    How does one do lots of push ups if one can't do them :D
    No seriously, you end up like me doing for years push ups with an utterly embarassing form :D
     
  5. Ero-Sennin

    Ero-Sennin Well-Known Member Supporter

    Do them on your knees! It works all the same core muscles and chest/arm/back muscles as normal pushups but to a lesser degree.

    If you can do 1 normal pushup with strict form, do it as many times as you can do throughout the day. Wake up and do 1 push up, do 1 push up before your first sip of coffee, do 1 push up after the coffee, do 1 pushup before you eat, after you eat, before you go to the bathroom, etc.. Make it a kind of "payment method" to do simple tasks. Before you know it you'll be doing 2 pushups without a problem (probably after about 2-3 days) and than substitute the 2 pushups for 1 until you're doing sets of 10 normally without a problem.
     
  6. Madao13

    Madao13 Valued Member

    Do what Ero-Sennin said. There is no better way to get better at something than practising at it. Except if you are having an injury or something else that makes your case special.

    I used to do one push up with difficulty some years ago too, when I picked up martial arts for the first time and I gradually increased them to 5 and then to ten to 15 and then to 20 in one month..
     
  7. Alex MH

    Alex MH Valued Member

    I used to be very weak at push ups, but I started waking up in the morning and do 3 push up a day and adding 1 push up every other day until I got up to 40 every morning.

    Now I do different morning exercises, but practice makes miracles!

    Keep adding one push up every day and don't give up.
     
  8. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    But as soon as you don't have the strength to keep proper form, stop.
     
  9. Wildlings

    Wildlings Baguette Jouster

    If the Op can do at least one properly, then ok.
    As for knee push ups, a couple of years ago I was doing 50+ of them but couldn't do any from the toes...
    When you do them from the knees, there is no activation of the stabilizers in the core as well as the glutes and quads, which makes quite a difference.
     
  10. Giovanni

    Giovanni Well-Known Member Supporter

    only do what you can. but i would make sure that even if you can only do 1 or 2 pushups don't let your form suffer. there's nothing worse than lying to yourself or your body. take it slow, use proper form, keep working and eventually you'll see gains.

    when i started running regularly, i could only run for 3 minutes at a time--no joke. so that's what i did, i ran for 3 minutes three times a week, every week. and i didn't skimp on those three minutes, like walk some of the time. i ran. eventually, i built it up to where i can now do 10k and 20k pretty much no sweat.
     
  11. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    You could try them standing, pushing off a wall, and increase the angle.
     
  12. Ero-Sennin

    Ero-Sennin Well-Known Member Supporter

    There is, but not a ton and you still have to have correct form. If it's not doing it for you than go the down part of the movement as a regular push up, drop to knees and go up then repeat. You're stronger on the "down" or negative portion of any movement so you'll definitely be able to do at least 5-6 like this and it will help you progress to doing push ups quicker too.
     
  13. Wildlings

    Wildlings Baguette Jouster

    Yep. That's exactly what I advice. A couple of cousins of mine are in the army and they used this method when preparing for the entry test :p
     
  14. Ero-Sennin

    Ero-Sennin Well-Known Member Supporter

    He can probably do pushups in his sleep now. That's one of the Army's things for their physical fitness tests (pushups). We had a weak sauce Marine from our unit (was hilarious because he thought he was hot stuff) go to an Army Jump School and got kicked out because he couldn't do 20 push ups correctly (that's as far as he got, you had to do 50 though) in 2 min. time. I freaking hated that dude, was pretty happy at how hard he failed.
     
  15. zombiekicker

    zombiekicker bagpuss

    thanks lots of good advice , are they ok to do everyday? or would it affect my weight training?
     
  16. Wildlings

    Wildlings Baguette Jouster

    Lol!
    To access the Italian army you have to be able to do at least 15 in 50 seconds :hat:
     
  17. zombiekicker

    zombiekicker bagpuss

    ah running another bugbear, incredible pain in my shins when i try to jog, hence using a rebounder and kb swings for cardio
     
  18. Wildlings

    Wildlings Baguette Jouster

    You can either do them together with your weight session - resistance is resistance, and so long as you're with low reps it still counts as max strength training - or with the 'greasing the groove' method, meaning that you throw in a set every few hours throughout all the day.
     
  19. Giovanni

    Giovanni Well-Known Member Supporter

    way to find something that will work so you can still get cardio. i think you're on the right track in that you're trying. just keep it up buddy!
     
  20. zombiekicker

    zombiekicker bagpuss

    yeah cheers i jog fast on rebounder with 3 kg weights for extra muscular resistance, and the g force on the downward part of the bounce multiplies that 3kg by some mad aamount i cant calculate, then do 150 kb swings with 5 sets of 30
     

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