Kathy S, Donna and Other Pushup Weenies

Doing one straight-legged push-up is comparable to doing 10 bent-knee push-ups.

The only way to get good at push-ups is to doing them frequently. One possibility is to commit yourself to doing at least one set of straight-legged push-ups every day; if you can do two then do two; if you can do five then do five. All of this in addition to your scheduled upper body work. And commit yourself to doing Just One More, even of that Just One More needs a break / breather at the top of the push-up for a second or two.

A-Jock
 
A-Jock wrote:

Re triceps contribution to push-ups:
A better way to develop triceps strength as a means to improve push-up performance is to do weighted triceps dips, as opposed to supine triceps extensions (skullcrushers, French presses, etc.) or kickbacks. Triceps dips more closely mimic the movement of push-ups, and you can do those with the legs elevated, in a longer extension, and a barbell across your hips to promote strength in the tris.

I find this very interesting since tricep dips are just about as hard for me as pushups!!! I can do a few more dips than pushups BUT I fatigue very quickly on them. And forget triceps pushups – I can't do any of those!

Another thing I've been experiementing with lately is doing my triceps excercises BEFORE my bicep excercises. I find if I do biceps first followed by triceps, my triceps are already somewhat fatigued!!! I have found that this has definately helped me do more triceps reps and I even sometimes double the set (yee hah!).

AND I JUST WANTED TO WISH NANCY324 A GREAT BIG HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY ! ! ! :7 :7 :7

Susan
 
Hey Weenies, a review...

Oh dear, Push-Up Weenie Queens, here's what comes through to me from all our great advisors: We PWQ's have believed we are strong, but alas, in the ways of the great Push-Up we are not. :) If we long for the day when we, like our tiny mentor, can whip out an impromptu set of 20 with our feet mounted on the bumpers of our Jeep Grand Cherokees, we must get our attractive butts to work. :) (Miss Bobbi, take note for our rotation which you're preparing for us, right??? ;-))

We should try:

1. Additional core work, maybe several more times a week. Ugh.
2. Additional hip flexor strength work.
3. Rear delts -- maybe an extra set or two of strength work?
4. Weighted triceps dips
5. Yoga pushups a/k/a tricep push-ups (I pledge to try, but these do NOT agree with the way my giganto arms are made. :))
6. Of course, additional push-ups (Susan, notice that I went back and inserted the required hyphens. :)) -- Shall we try to set a goal of some kind, like XX on the knees and XX on the toes?

What else, you guys? Do you think we need extra shoulder work or quads/hammies work?

I'm tired and shakin' like a chihuahua already. ;-)

http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung0903/sport/sport-smiley-003.gif Kathy S. http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung0903/spezial/spudniks/spudniklifter.gif
 
I forgot Nancy! I hope you are having a WONDERFUL day!

(How about a birthday fitness goal of three straight-leg push-ups by next birthday?)
 
RE: Hey Weenies, a review...

Thanks for summing all of this up, Kathy! (You obviously have an organized mind.)

Before I commit to TOO much extra work, I might start with A-Jock's suggestion of just doing as many straight-leg push-ups as I can outside of a Cathe workout and incrementally adding more on, even if it means resting a second or two between reps. Beginning tomorrow, I'll try this for four weeks and see where it gets me. (On a good day, when no other chest work is involved, I can usually do six straight-legs.)

I'm already doing core work 6 days/wk, which seems to be working (albeit slowly) for me.

Do you all want to give this a shot first? It will take a lot less time!
 
RE: Hey Weenies, a review...

Yes, Susan, I'm going to try this! I'm also going to add more core work because I really don't do much. I just tried one of the tricep pushups mentioned above where you hold it as long as you can. I counted to 15 then had to drop. I'm also going to try this several times a week (everyday?).
 
RE: Hey Weenies, a review...

Oh, and hip flexor work...that's a week area for me anyway.

I just tried and could do three on my toes push-ups, but they were SLOOOOWWWWWW and that last one was almost a no go. Course, just finished the Bonus Combo from the Pyramid DVD about 20 minutes ago, so think I'll try again BEFORE my next workout.
 
And next week, it's hip flexors!

Susan, in a short time, I am going to commandeer the DVD player and run a review of the ab work. I'm thinking alternating traditional ab work with the non-traditional stuff Cathe's treated to us in the past few years might do the trick. I don't usually work abs on consecutive days but core work done with planks and stability ball work and all that jazz feel very different from cruches. (Thank goodness!) I'll attempt to categorize them so they can be attatched to shoulder, chest and triceps work effectively.

After reading Ann's post I dropped and gave myself 20! :D I think Weenies may be stronger than realized if form is correct. Bio-mechanically speaking, we have a major hodge podge on our hands so it's up to us individually to find what works. I aligned my arms at chest level and made them wider in the way I favor with the barbell. I think the trick for me is wide arms, not foreward, wide arms. My shoulders responded but not the the extent they usually do which is in a way that feels like they may explode! LOL!.

I can now hold a handstand for 3 seconds and my family is getting used to me flipping up into one against the wall and then trying to balance without it everytime the urge to do so comes upon me. Ann mentioned dropping into Chattaranga, one of my favorite yoga moves and one which mimics the push-up in a much easier way than real push-up-ing. I think Weenies can get really strong doing yoga and not feel like they are working all that hard.

Can you go palms flat in Uttanasana?

I have finished my major housework so all that's left is to write a letter of resignation to my family and assign them duties so I can pursue my dream of core strength, perfect pecs and insanely well-developed deltoids and triceps!
 
Susan, thank you, but how the heck did you know it was my birthday???? Girlfriend, you are one sneaky lurker!

I must say, it's been one great birthday. My DH was out of town and I thought it would be kind of pathetic, but he had all these cards and jelly bellys waiting on my computer for me this morning and then had this big "smilebox" delivered to my office filled with goodies and singing teddy bears and balloons and what-not (great idea: www.smilebox.com) and then everyone knew and then my secretaries got me 2 dozen gorgeous roses and then everyone was wishing me happy birthday and then I treated myself to a shopping trip right in the middle of the day (!!!) and my parents came into the city and took me out to a restaurant I had been DYING to try and it was fabulous and we had a great time!!! So now I'm kind of drunk but very happy and looking forward to our trip to Glassboro my friend!

Oops, I think I got off topic here..........:7

Thanks again Susan :7

Feeling no pain even though she's old,
Nancy
 
RE: And next week, it's hip flexors!

You are so funny, Bobbi! Has your family accepted your resignation? That means you can still be a part of it but just not do any more work, right?

TWENTY push-ups?!? TWENTY?!? With those and the hundreds of pull-ups you do, you might have to submit a letter of resignation to the Ectos (and Weenies!) as well. (Muttering under breath...20 push-ups...)

I'll fool around with various arm positions and see where that gets me too. Tricep push-ups (e.g., Chaturangas) are the only way I can do my measly six.

Congratulations on your handstand! I think that's a major accomplishment, worthy of a birthday goal!

My palms do go flat in Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend for you nonsanskrit-speaking exercisers. Bobbi and I are, of course, completely fluent:p ). I can't quite get my head to my knees with a flat back, though.
 
Okay, this morning I did six tricep push-ups, took a 5-second break, then did five more before collapsing onto the floor. I feel them primarily in my shoulders and secondly in my core. I try hard not to scrunch my shoulders but it's very hard for me not to. My form starts to rapidly decline after about the second one. Tomorrow I'll try to vary my arm position.

These are all done outside of a regular workout. Today, in fact, is my rest day:) .
 
Susan, it's my rest day as well, but I did one of those hold'em tricep push-ups and held it for a count of 20 (still can't get back up though). I'll try regular push-ups (on toes) when I get home from work. Six tricep push-ups is phenomenal(sp?) to me! Then you did 5 more!?! Wow.
 
Susan,

"For YEARS (even while consistently working out), I could barely get my shoulder blades off the floor during crunches."

Geez, I hope this isn't a dumb question, but do your shoulder blades have to get off the floor to do a "good" crunch? I can get my shoulders off the floor, not clasp my hands, keep my elbows out, but I didn't know about the shoulder blades???

Gina
 
Triceps are.....

predominantly fast-twitch muscle fibers. This means they are built mostly for short, intense bursts of energy. I wouldn't think that working your tris more is going to get you over the hump of trying to do a bunch of regular pushups. Don't get me wrong it will help to some degree but I would think that if you want to get significant increases in repetions of regular pushups then you would work the chest muscles in varying rep speeds and numbers. And actually do pushups! LOL! Chest muscle in most people is 50/50 fast and slow twitch fibers so they are capable of endurance type muscle movements as we all know. There's an old rule that you have to actually practice the activity in which you are trying to improve. It's like doing a video when you are trying to improve your running skills. Not quite the smartest way to go about things.
I know you know this but regular pushups are with the hands out wide and tri pushups are where you have the hands close to the body.....those have troubles cranking out reps might try widening the hand position.
Anyway good luck to the weenies!! This is a neat little "club".
Trevor :)
 
RE: Triceps are.....

Thanks Trevor! I'm taking all advice at this point...I'm trying to firm up those darned triceps in addition to building up my push-up capabilities. I can barely do three (on my toes) now, but I keep trying. :) Can't do even one tricep push-up, and wider does work better in my case for regular push-ups (but am still a big weenie, LOL!!).
 
RE: Triceps are.....

Thanks, Trevor! I understand your point about improving running skills with a video rather than actually running. The trouble is, I and many other Weenies here haved been trying for YEARS to improve push-up performance by doing push-ups and have gotten pretty much nowhere.

Today was my second day of attempting straight-leg push-ups before a workout. I tried widening my arms -- didn't work, putting them forward -- didn't work and caused discomfort in my shoulders. So I went back to my usual tricep straight-leg push-ups and because I was fatigued from the previous two (!), I could only do three (as opposed to six yesterday). I took a five second break, did two more (as opposed to four more yesterday) with poor form, then collapsed onto the floor.

I then did Bootcamp, and since I was discouraged by my push-up session, I didn't have quite the energy and confidence I usually have. (No euphoric Bootcamp posts from me today!) I did bent-knee push-ups while Cathe et al. did them on their toes and I noticed I felt them primarily in my chest as opposed to my shoulders and core. What's up with that?

One more point about your running/video analogy: I do yoga and there are many difficult strength poses that I would NEVER be able to do if I didn't weight train. (Not that I'm great at them now, mind you:) .) Improving strength in particularly weak areas can help you do things you couldn't do otherwise, no matter how hard or long you tried. I think a combination of strengthening weak areas as well as actually doing (attempting?) the push-ups would be an ideal combo.
 
RE: Triceps are.....

After my post above to Trevor I tried my regular push-ups and was able to do 4. Woohoo! Progress.
 
RE: Triceps are.....

Susan, last night at Yoga for Women, I pulled off an arm balance called The Crow and the instructor was surprised that I could do it on my first try. Ha ha! Thank Cathe. That's four months of heavy strength training, pure and simple. But I can't do simple Tree Pose because of my arches and my hammys are so tight from running and strength training that my Standing Foreward Bend was positively ugly. http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/crying.gif I took ONE week off from yoga! Never have been able to go palms flat in Standing Foreward Bend although I can bring my head to my knees if I hold my ankles. Always thought the palms down thing was because of these long legs but knowing you are a leggy creature, I have to rethink that. I ran three miles and did ME in the AM yesterday and then yoga in the afternoon and today I feel like an old lady, a cranky old lady! http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/crying.gif
 
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