Cathe, help w/ pushups and crunches!

[katia7]

Hi Cathe,
I'm tooooo excited about the BB DVDs! Can't wait!:7

I was hoping you can help me with pushups and crunches...

Pushups: How do I advance on to doing pushups? I can do about 4 girl pushups:+ , but that's about it. I'm wondering if there's a certain muscle that I need to work more?

Crunches: My neck always gets tired and I can't finish doing all the ab work that you do in the videos. What am I doing wrong? I don't pull on my neck and always look streight up at the ceiling. On the crunches where you hold your hands in the air (instead of behind the head) my neck hurts even more. What am I doing wrong?

Thank you!
Katia

 

[runathon]

My neck hurts also when doing crunches and I cannot finish any of the ab work...it is soooo frustrating!

My pushups are virtually non-existent, too!;( muaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!


Blessings from our home to yours...Runathon

 

[shaan]

Sorry, I am no Cathe but I USED to have the same problem but Power Hour and Slow and Heavy took care of the problem for me.

My problem was strength. As soon as I increased my weights when doing biceps, triceps AND chest workouts I suddenly (literally) was able to go from 1 girlie push up to 8 man push ups!

I was overjoyed and still am cause I was never before been able to do that many man push ups.

Now, I can even do those jump in and out pushup and am upto 25 man push ups before I fall flat on my nose.

Took me about 8 weeks after I increased the weights (not sure if that is good or bad time frame) but then I was DETERMINED to get there and would practice them even when I wasn't working out.

Just remember, you have to be honest and do them right and do them slowly until you get the form and the strength and once you get that it truly becomes a piece of cake.

You will one day laugh at yourself for thinking push ups were hard just like I am laughing at myself today thinking stepping sucked and push ups were hard.

ALL THANKS TO CATHE!!! Gosh, amazing how she doesn't have a ballooned head - she is helping so many people!!!!

 

[kathryn]

Hi, Katia.
A couple of suggestions:
For push-ups, do as many as you can, even if that's 4 for now, then do the rest as negatives. Start at the top of the movement, and slowly lower yourself to the ground. Then set yourself back up in the "up" postion and repeat.

For a sore neck, you can try using a towel to support your neck (put th folded towel behind your neck and hold on to the two ends. Rest your head back into the towel---don't pull on it).

 

[atiman]

Hi Katia,

What I did to get more reps in was to practice push-ups while watching TV. I started with as many(8) as I could do, then added 1 or 2 more reps each day or within severals days. I believe that within 3 weeks I was up to 18 push-ups.

Also, after doing a Cathe, I find that I'm too fatigued in the end to do my push-ups well. It's almost easier to do them first before the workout. Then do as many as you can during the video and then when you fatigue, do bent legged pushups.


I also find that putting all weight on my hands was more difficult and I would fatigue quicker. I started distrubuting most of my weight between my thumb, the back end of my palm and pinky. The 3 fingers in the middle were free and able to wiggle. This makes a difference for me and I notice it.


For the sore neck. I use my spine to support my neck and not really the muscles around it. Does that make sense?

 

[AllisonT]

On the pushups - I agree with all the advice given here. Besides working on chest/shoulder/triceps strength to aid in doing "boy" pushups, I also found that core/ab work helped a lot. Part of my initial difficulty in not being able to do full-body pushups was weakness in my abs and lower back; it takes strength to be able to hold your body in that long straight position! Planks and lots of ab work (upper, lower and obliques, plus lower-back work) really helped me.