Press ups....
Clockworkmark31
Posts: 1,053
Evening/Morning all.
Without getting bogged down in details. Push ups have always been my Achilles heel. No idea why but such is life.
I can do maybe 20 solid press ups and then fatigue. If I do the same resting against a kitchen work top I can double this.
But for the life in me I can't work out if it is easier of harder against a kitchen worktop?
Sits ups and pull ups no problem.
Even if I do X amount of sets per day I always struggle at 20, why?
Without getting bogged down in details. Push ups have always been my Achilles heel. No idea why but such is life.
I can do maybe 20 solid press ups and then fatigue. If I do the same resting against a kitchen work top I can double this.
But for the life in me I can't work out if it is easier of harder against a kitchen worktop?
Sits ups and pull ups no problem.
Even if I do X amount of sets per day I always struggle at 20, why?
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Comments
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Think I have just answered my own question why a 45° press-up is easier than a 90°one.
For six months I have been doing 4 lots of 20 press-ups a day and still it is no easier, what am I missing?
Posted too soon, It seems I am lifting 70% of my body weight and a bit more going down.
How can you make this exercise easier?0 -
Weight on knees instead of toesAnd the people bowed and prayed, to the neon god they made.0
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Weight on knees instead of toes
Weight on knees is half a press up and is not what I want.0 -
Do you want to make it easier or do you want to get better at it? To get better, increase gradually.
Instead of doing 4 sets of 20, do 3 sets starting with 21 per set.
Each day add 1 per set up to 25 if you can, or for as long as you can.
Then add only one per day - one to the first set, then one to the second set etc.
Then add one per week
Gradual increase.0 -
Don't forget about you triceps...
You can have big, strong chest but still may struggle with push ups if your hands are weak.
I'd love to see a 90deg push up ???
I understand a standard, decline and incline but 90deg....hmmm interesting0 -
Wanting to get better at them, and be able to perform more in quick succession.
Think military training.
Might have to chuck some tricep dips in then. Always struggled with this basic exercise. Get to a point and then my arms just say no more.0 -
Arm strength really shouldn't come into play here. You should be lowering your body with your back (lats) and pressing with your chest. Triceps would only come into play if you were doing really heavy bench press and struggling to lock out at the top of the movement.
If by 45 degree you mean with feet on the ground then this will be far easier as your body weight has less affect on your chest at that angle. If you mean feet up and find it easier then your must naturally have stronger shoulders compared to your chest.Bird Aeris : Trek Remedy 9.9 29er : Trek Procaliber 9.8 SL0 -
Arm strength really shouldn't come into play here. You should be lowering your body with your back (lats) and pressing with your chest. Triceps would only come into play if you were doing really heavy bench press and struggling to lock out at the top of the movement.
If by 45 degree you mean with feet on the ground then this will be far easier as your body weight has less affect on your chest at that angle. If you mean feet up and find it easier then your must naturally have stronger shoulders compared to your chest.
Okay, I might have learnt something, I thought pressups were from arm strength.
Doing normal military style I always get 20.
I won't do them on my knees as I won't be able to.
By 45 degrees I meant leaning against a kitchen worktop hands on it, feet on floor. So your explanation makes sense.
Are you sure, it is all from back and chest? My arms always fatigue. I know it is a simple exercise but I think the technique is hard to master.0 -
Your arms are fatigued because you are using your triceps to lower your body and press back up. They are also one of the smallest muscle groups in your upper body so will fatigue quickly. A true press up uses the back to lower so you almost end up with your shoulder blades retracted together and then using the chest to power the body back up.
A simple way to get the feel of this is to keep elbow in through the movement rather than flared out. This keeps the movements targeted where you want it, chest and back, and away from your arms whilst decreasing shoulder evolvement and potential rotator cuff damage.
You will probably find it easier to get the feel for this doing your incline to start with and aim to lower, pause and then power through the chest to upright so your hands lose contact with the work surface and you end up in a standing position. Get this right and you'll find the technique will transfer to flat far easier.Bird Aeris : Trek Remedy 9.9 29er : Trek Procaliber 9.8 SL0 -
Your arms are fatigued because you are using your triceps to lower your body and press back up. They are also one of the smallest muscle groups in your upper body so will fatigue quickly. A true press up uses the back to lower so you almost end up with your shoulder blades retracted together and then using the chest to power the body back up.
A simple way to get the feel of this is to keep elbow in through the movement rather than flared out. This keeps the movements targeted where you want it, chest and back, and away from your arms whilst decreasing shoulder evolvement and potential rotator cuff damage.
You will probably find it easier to get the feel for this doing your incline to start with and aim to lower, pause and then power through the chest to upright so your hands lose contact with the work surface and you end up in a standing position. Get this right and you'll find the technique will transfer to flat far easier.
Thanks bloggingFit
Will try the elbows tucked in method. I always have them flared out. Always thought it was due to my technique but never asked.
So wrists shoulder width apart and elbows tucked in so they go parallel with the body? Power up then repeat. Obviously transfer to normal.
I have always been doing them with straight arms to the elbow if that makes sense.
Will try this technique for a few weeks.0 -
Arm strength really shouldn't come into play here. You should be lowering your body with your back (lats) and pressing with your chest. Triceps would only come into play if you were doing really heavy bench press and struggling to lock out at the top of the movement.
If by 45 degree you mean with feet on the ground then this will be far easier as your body weight has less affect on your chest at that angle. If you mean feet up and find it easier then your must naturally have stronger shoulders compared to your chest.
Don't tell me (him) arms/triceps don't work here....
https://highoctanelifestyle.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/push-ups-the-perfect-exercise/comment-page-1/0 -
Course it involves your triceps its a pushing motion, hence press up/push up. By bringing your elbows in your going to increase the activation of the tricep. Ever wondered why a close grip bench press is used ?0
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If you want to improv,e some direct tricep work will greatly benefit you. If you dont have access to a gym id perform severals sets of press ups close to your max effort. Your max effort is 20 so i personally would start off with say 3 sets of 15 till you can complete them all, then 3 sets of 16 and so on. Then test your max effort every 4 weeks or so. A nice linear progression.0
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It's due to hand placement and not elbow placement and creating a stable platform with your arms to target your chest - the closer your hands, the more you hit the triceps. If you flare elbows out, you lose the stability and triceps come into play more to compensate. A shoulder width hand placement with elbows in will hit the chest far more and triceps far less than if you bring flare them out.Course it involves your triceps its a pushing motion, hence press up/push up. By bringing your elbows in your going to increase the activation of the tricep. Ever wondered why a close grip bench press is used ?Bird Aeris : Trek Remedy 9.9 29er : Trek Procaliber 9.8 SL0 -
Your correct about the hand placement although if the elbows are flared ur delts compensate for the instability also taking away from the triceps, atleast it did in my case which ledt me with bicep tendon tear on a heavy bench day. My argument was that theryre are no two ways about it, the triceps and chest are the two primary muscles used in any pushup of any variation. Direct tricep work is always going to be beneficial for any pushing exercise.0
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Unfortunate about your injury but that smacks of bad form and why you should not flare elbows on pressing movement, especially when heavy loads are involved.Your correct about the hand placement although if the elbows are flared ur delts compensate for the instability also taking away from the triceps, atleast it did in my case which ledt me with bicep tendon tear on a heavy bench day. My argument was that theryre are no two ways about it, the triceps and chest are the two primary muscles used in any pushup of any variation. Direct tricep work is always going to be beneficial for any pushing exercise.
Not disputing Triceps being used but it's not a primary muscle group employed with proper form. No one should be experiencing Tricep failure before Chest when doing press ups with proper form.Bird Aeris : Trek Remedy 9.9 29er : Trek Procaliber 9.8 SL0 -
Form was spot on however the bar wasnt in great shape, i work out at an old school private powerlifting gym where the equipment has seen better days, the bar rolled in my hand meaning i had to flare my right elbow to catch the bar from landing on my chest resulting in the injury. Its deadlift day tonight but ill try your suggestions on how to execute a press up and see for myself on friday, if it works then ill see if i can beat my 2min max college effort.0
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legs wide apart can make it easier. To get better: bench press and triceps dips will help. or mix them up with tricep push up and spider man push ups, or try asymmetric hands alternating.0
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Working on my core fitness more now and getting better at them.
Been mixing it up with different styles after some inside info
My natural position is fine hands shoulder width apart and straight with elbows around 45 degrees.
Been doing RM style press ups too, pure triceps workout elbows tucked into the body.
Amazingly my weight has started coming down too. after being the same weight for years. Down to 90kg from 98kg, only happened in the past two weeks. But been measuring out food portions rather than just cooking it all. And having one normal day of food, and the second minimal food. And having a decent sleep.
Think there may be hope for me yet.
I know skipping meals is not the best way, but it is taking my love handles away. When I get to 80-85kg, I will do a meal plan etc. But skipping the meals seems to be the only way I can shift the Kgs.0 -
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19726882#p19726882]Clockworkmark31[/url] wrote:
And having one normal day of food, and the second minimal food..
Minimal food and hard exercise will not end well, as witnessed in any number of Siberian salt mines0 -
Going back to your original query. 20 is by no means a bad number of reps taking in to account a number of variables. first how old are you ? its pretty impressive for someone in their 50s less so if your 22
Here is a link to the ''cooper test'' which gives average performance by age for a number of activities including push ups http://www.whyiexercise.com/cooper-test.html
Second is form, when is ''press up'' not a press up. I have seen people make wild claims on how many reps they can achieve, but when they demonstrate its about half that are done properly, before they start only going part way down or stopping for a rest etal. The push up should be near continual controlled motion over the full range of movement. As soon as you chest is not getting with in an inch of the floor, or your pausing for more than a couple of seconds at the turn round, getting stuck half way up or crabbing because one of your arms has packed up. anything after that doesn't really count as a rep
And then it ''how often'' ? 20 x 5 a day is really very good at any age. 20 reps and needing 3 days recovery before you can repeat, less so
I'm in my mid 50s and can do( currently) 30 as a one off and the a fore mentioned 3 days rest or 20 on a daily basis Monday to Friday with the week end off. What was fairly easy on the Monday is a bit of a struggle on the Friday I take more note of the second figure as a measure of my fitness than I do the head line figure. I cant see the point of being fairly strong twice a week and weak as a kitten the rest of time0 -
As long as you have fat to burn, there is nothing wrong with cutting out food or having fasting days. Its actually pretty good for you. As long as:
1. You consume a min of 10% of your RDA
2. you don't go more than 24-36 hours without food
3. you take on extra protein after.
You can easily go hard for up to an hour or so having gone the whole day on minimal calories, just takes a bit of training to get your body comfy. Very few people will have such a low muscle/bodyfat content that this will be a problem.
I regularly do 3 hours of hard cardio and strength training on less than 300kcal for the day.0 -
As long as you have fat to burn, there is nothing wrong with cutting out food or having fasting days. Its actually pretty good for you. .
I wouldn't go as far as GOOD for you, lets settle for no long term harm,In fact I am surprised the government don't recommend fasting for folk using food banks, if its good for you
But thats not my take on what the OP is saying he is doing. That being calorie control diet one day, fasting the alternate day Repeat for an unspecified amount of time. That means his average daily intake must be sub 1000 calories, that border line starvation plus he is doing an increasing amount of exercise and presumably hoping his body will heal and improve its self
How long do you think he can sustain that before he cant actually get out of bed ?0 -
As long as you have fat to burn, there is nothing wrong with cutting out food or having fasting days. Its actually pretty good for you. .
I wouldn't go as far as GOOD for you, lets settle for no long term harm,In fact I am surprised the government don't recommend fasting for folk using food banks, if its good for you
But thats not my take on what the OP is saying he is doing. That being calorie control diet one day, fasting the alternate day Repeat for an unspecified amount of time. That means his average daily intake must be sub 1000 calories, that border line starvation plus he is doing an increasing amount of exercise and presumably hoping his body will heal and improve its self
How long do you think he can sustain that before he cant actually get out of bed ?
I don't think anyone is advocating starvation as a weight loss strategy...
I can add personal experience to the suggestion that intermittent fasting can be good for you. Since February I've been following a 5:2 eating pattern and consuming 600 kcal or less on Mondays and Thursdays, more or less what I like the rest of the time. I've gradually lost 8kg, some of which must have been visceral fat which we're told is bad for us. More interestingly my blood lipid profile has improved to the point my GP is no longer considering putting me on medication. My weight seems to have stabilised now, but I'm sticking to the 5:2 because I'm persuaded there may be other benefits.0 -
As long as you have fat to burn, there is nothing wrong with cutting out food or having fasting days. Its actually pretty good for you. .
I wouldn't go as far as GOOD for you, lets settle for no long term harm,In fact I am surprised the government don't recommend fasting for folk using food banks, if its good for you
But thats not my take on what the OP is saying he is doing. That being calorie control diet one day, fasting the alternate day Repeat for an unspecified amount of time. That means his average daily intake must be sub 1000 calories, that border line starvation plus he is doing an increasing amount of exercise and presumably hoping his body will heal and improve its self
How long do you think he can sustain that before he cant actually get out of bed ?
He seems to be on a 4:3, I've no idea what his bodyfat %age is to determine how long he can sustain this for, but his 2kg in 2 weeks is within tolerances for acceptable sensible weight loss diets. Over time his body will get used to metabolising fat during exercise and he may find he can go harder/faster over shorter distances due to lower demands on his heart for example.
I think its generally accepted that fasting can reduce cholesterol, and Insulin like growth factor. Unless you are actively trying to promote growth hormone (e.g serious body building) - fasting can have health benefits.
I personally don't think the human body needs 3 meals every day. However, there are many ways to skin a cat.
I've been doing intermittent fasting for over 3 years and I'm in much better shape by all recognised measures as a result.0 -
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He seems to be on a 4:3, I've no idea what his bodyfat %age is to determine how long he can sustain this for, but his 2kg in 2 weeks is within tolerances for acceptable sensible weight loss diets. .
I think you may need to reread his post, he claims to have lost EIGHT KG in two weeks, not two. that's nearly a stone and a half in old money. That is not, to my mind, sensible weight loss ?0 -
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I've been doing intermittent fasting for over 3 years and I'm in much better shape by all recognised measures as a result.
Hmm , one is a very small sample size to base your conclusion on. As a counter point I have not been fasting and I am also in much better shape by all measures than I was 3 years ago. In fact every evening I buy myself a GIANT Aero, 2 large bags of pistachio nut and a bottle of lucozade. and eat the lot But I wouldn't start claiming that this is the reason for the improvement in my fitness/ weight loss0 -
or you could read up on the subject and realise there have been quite a few publications and studies.
If he's losing 4kg per week, he's burning muscle too. Not good0 -
If he's losing 4kg per week, he's burning muscle too. Not good
In which case I was correct to sound a warning note over the advisability of his weight loss strategy ? as there is no way he has metabolized 20 lbs of fat in a fortnight0
