I thought you might be interested in this from the Firm board.
You have to be strong in your chest, shoulders, arms and core to do this exercise well. That’s a lot of different muscle groups! They all have to work together, each one strong enough to handle its own particular task, to pump out the reps.
What’s more, the ability to do this exercise is strongly determined by the lever you are working with. In other words, the taller you are, or the longer your limbs are, the harder it is. Think about the difference between medial fly with your elbows bent and your elbows basically straight. I know I personally can handle 8-10 pounds of weight for a bent-arm fly, but choose more like five pounds for the straight-arm. That’s because the lever is longer — the distance between the shoulder, the working muscle, and the weight.
So many women beat themselves up about doing this exercise on their toes, and I can see why. The push-up is one of the exercise standards for measuring strength. But here’s the cool part: The standard for women is the push-up on her knees! That’s right. Why?
Because of everything I already mentioned, plus the fact that our center of gravity is different from men. Their center is right around the middle. Ours is lower, in the hips. Not only do we tend to carry more excess fat around the hips and thighs than a man, but we also are relatively stronger there, too. Conversely, we are weaker in the upper body.
Every woman is different, of course. If you’re shorter and have worked hard to develop upper body and core strength, you might find push-ups challenging, but no more than any other multi-joint exercise. However, if you’re tall and small-boned, these are going to be T-O-U-G-H to do on your toes, even under the best of circumstances. But that’s OK because you can still get a great workout with them without ever leaving your knees.
The key to doing a good push-up on your knees is to create a straight line from the knees to the shoulders. Don’t let the hips lift up or the chest sink. Lower down as far as you can. Aim for your chest to be just two inches off the floor! If you start to feel really good about these, try lowering down on your toes, and pushing up on your knees. This will help strengthen your core and other stabilizer muscles, if nothing else.
). The step would work just as well. Start out w/all your risers & keep decreasing them until they're all gone. ;-)
