Big Girl Pushups

[bonvivant]

I've been working out regularly for 3 years now. I've been incorporating your workouts into my routine for about the last year. Even though I lift weights often, I cannot do a single "big girl" pushup. I always have to do them on my knees, which I'm kind of tired of doing. I want to be stronger! I can get to the bottom of the move, getting very close to the floor. Yet I can't push myself back up without going back down to my knees. I'm so frustrated with this. Do you have any advice or tips to help? Thank you.

P.S. I love your workouts. I'm always amazed at how much fun they are. Who knew you could have a good time working out?

 

[singinggoddess]

Bonvivant,
The only way to be able to do a big girl pushup is to just keep practicing. Do them everyday and once you can do one try to add one more every couple of weeks or however often you can. I could never do them either until I got Cathe's gymstyle chest and triceps dvd. She does a total of about 70 something broken up into sets. It is really good and that is the only way I learned to do them. I can do about 30 now and I just this year learned how to do them. I could never understand why I could not do them either, because I have been weight training for years. It is just one of those things thatyou just have to keep doing them on the knees until finally you can do one on the toes and you just keep going. I hope this helps and good luck!

Susan

 

[Aquajock]

A good way to segue into straight-leg push-ups is to start with wall or bannister push-ups, where your hands are placed on an elevated surface. Once you've gotten skilled at those, go to step push-ups, where your hands are placed on an 8" step; once you've gotten skilled at those, place your hands on a 4" or 6" step. The lower the elevation of your hands the truer the push-ups. But of course keep your legs straight throughout.

HTH -

A-Jock

 

[janiejoey]

Bonvivant,

The way I learned to do big girl push-ups, is to start with however many you can do, then try to add one more everyother day. Someone on the board suggested this to me, and it works. Same thing if you want to do push-ups with your feet on the step up board.

Janie

"Whoo Hoo"
-Cathe Friedrich-

 

[Jcrew3082]

I had the same problem and asked a similar question. Here is the link to that thread: http://69.0.137.118/dc/dcboard.php?..._id=292926&mesg_id=292926&listing_type=search

Using the side of my bed to do the push ups helped tremendously. I went from being able to do 2 full ones on the floor to 10 full ones on the floor in only a week.

 

[Faithnveggies]

I don't know if this is cheating or not, but I was able to do much better w/ push ups once I stopped going so low, I tried to not drop any farther than my elbows at the most and maybe a smidge higher if I was pacing myself to do a certain amt. It might even be safer for your joints that way. I would be interested to know. Can you practice in front of a mirror?


You wrote: I can get to the bottom of the move, getting very close to the floor. Yet I can't push myself back up without going back down to my knees.

 

[beth6395]

I too have a very difficult time with pushups. I tried a wide foot stance and was able to do them better. I also have a good upper body so I don't concentrate on it that much. I just do as many as I can then go to knees crossed at ankle each time it vary's 10 is probably the most.

beth6395

 

[Luv2WorkHard]

Hi,

I had to learn how to do "Big Girl Pushups" when I was training for the FBI. I had time-constraints, so had to learn how fast. I trained my upper body by doing as many on my knees as I could, several times a day. After I was satisfied that I had sufficiently worked my upper body to a good burn for a few days, I tried doing it on my toes. The first time I tried, I could barely do one! I just kept doing as many on my knees as possible, then trying on my toes until after about a month of hard training, I could do 25 without stopping. This is a huge improvement from the ONE that I could barely do, just a month earlier. This was a year and a half ago and I don't train as much as I used to; however, I can still do 10-15 with no effort.

So it IS possible...you just have to keep trying and keep working that part of your body regularly.

 

[kristen]

I got there by continuing to work on bent knee pushups, as others have said, but I also found doing chest work with increasingly heavy weights (bench presses and flies) really pumped up my pec strength and got me to where I could do full pushups. Working your triceps and your core will help too since those muscles are also important in big girl (love the name!) pushups.

 

[aapple]

I am now able to do at least 15 good pushups because I used my core instead of depending on my upper body. With the result, I now have amazingly strong lower abs. So try pushing yourself up with your core. If you dont have a strong core, you might have difficulty doing this, but try nevertheless. I now do 50 pushups a day, in sets of ten throughout the day. I'm still amazed at how strong this has made my core!