Once upon a time I could do a push up. Many, even! But then I got pregnant and had a baby and the phrase “shredded, ripped abs” took on a whole new meaning. You never know how much you use your core muscles until you no longer have any. I discovered this the other day when I talked my dubious husband into walking the track with the wee Jelly Bean so I could do half a Turbokick class. Maybe it was too early to go back to high-impact activities but I’m not going to lie to you, it was like fitness crack and I’ll do it again the second I get another chance. I felt awesome.
Until we got to the ab portion at the end, that is. I wasn’t expecting to be able to do the situps yet but when the teacher threw in a few planks and push ups I figured as I had kept up with my arm and shoulder strength, I should be fine.
Oh.
Ouch.
Owowowowowowoww.
Fall.
Faint.
Superheroes have nothing on my abs – not only are my abs invisible but they are apparently immaterial as well. Most people think of push ups as a shoulder/chest exercise but I’m here to tell you that your core also plays a big role. Thankfully at that point my baby had woken up and I fled the studio to nurse her and my broken bellybutton in shame. After that I resolved to work – slowly – on my push ups at home.
Despite being one of the best and most basic body weight exercises you can do, push ups often get overlooked unless you are selling funny handles that aren’t attached to anything. Part of that I think is being nose to the ground puts you on eye level with all the nastiness on the gym floor – go to muscle failure and you’re flossing your teeth with a hairball of suspicious origin. Not to mention their unfortunate rep as the punishment exercise, as in “drop and give me 20!” But the real reason I think push ups are so often relegated to workout filler is that they’re boring.
Okay, they’re boring and they hurt a lot.
One way to pimp your push ups that has been popular of late is to do the 100 push up challenge. Our own Sagan, Merry, Quix, and many others of you in blogland are alumni of this program. But I needed to smart smaller so when I came across an upper body workout from Pop Pilates I figured it would be a good warm up. Plus it was free and only ten minutes. How hard could it be?
Warm up, my pajama clad booty! It kicked my butt.
Between grunts of pain and unauthorized time outs, I gained a grudging respect for the power of Pilates. I always knew it was great for core strength but who knew it could be a whole body workout? (Okay, Alyssa knows, I’m sure.) There were three different kinds of push ups including a variety with your hands pointing in that I had never seen before. Those are some killer push ups. Seriously, you have to try it.
So today I’m challenging you: bored with normal push ups? Looking for a way to fit exercise into your day today? See if you can do this whole workout without pausing or taking any breaks. (I couldn’t!) If you’re already Tarzan chestacular then try doing the workout on your toes. It’s only ten minutes!
Still too easy? You’ll love this one:
Did you make it all the way through? How do you feel about push ups – love ’em or hate ’em? What is your favorite variety of push up? What’s the nastiest thing you’ve seen on your gym floor?
I hate ALL push ups, but I just tried this. Yow-za. I had to take off my sweatshirt halfway, but I made it through the whole thing. Those elbow push ups are insane! And I try to not look at the floor at my gym. Although I once saw a guy walking around barefoot. Not smart, dude, not smart.
Ok, she's got some freaky hyper-extended elbows!!! Yuck!
Man, I love me some Pilates. When it's done well, it's a KILLER workout. And I love her! I'm going to have to check out the other Pop Pilates stuff on YouTube.
As for push-ups in general, I hate the way they hurt, but I kind of feel like a badass when I can do them on my feet. So I do them because I like the badass feeling more than I dislike the hurting. 😉
onceuponatime I was really strong.
onceuponatime I decided to do a fitness competition.
onceuponatime I STILL could not do a one arm pushup (did I have the feet position wrong? were all the other "girls" just far stronger?)
onceuponatime I decided I was happy with the plain oles
cant wait to watch the vid (off to grab child) as I had no workout planned for today.
although after reading aboyn3girls' comment Im now wondering if it is a joke?
Ill be baaaaaaaaack
Will have to give that a try when I get home from work. The POP Pilates one, not the second thing; that just looks impossible.
Sagan is a 200 push up challenge kind-o-woman, I hear!!
I like doing push upa! It's a guy thing HaHa!! Or so I thought until I met my buddy, the break dancer, she can do handstand push ups until the cows come home 🙂
hate them. wish I could do them. Blaming my inability to do them on my height – my arms are just too long to support six feet of Horizontal Leslie.
I like them. I know. I'm wierd.
I do them with my body up on the exercise ball…the stronger I get the further I move the ball back…
It's amazing the difference in core strength even a few will do. I never thought about core muscles and pushups, but yeah, I bet they are in there.
I do hate planks though…mostly because I suck at them. I'm trying to work up my time at it. Heh heh. Yeah that's it…work my way up…
Push-ups are oneof the hardest exercises for me, which means I never do them. (Of course.) I wish I did them more because they are simple, free, and work so many muscles at once. I read an article once that said being able to do push-ups was the mark of real fitness. Maybe I'll start doing push-ups again.
I have zero core strength, so I know what you mean. I hate push-ups because they hurt and I can't stay straight so I'm not doing them right anyway. However in my karate days (like, over 10 years ago), I could do push-ups ad nauseam. I guess it's all in the motivation. My brothers and my sister still do karate today (black belts) and they can do over 300 pushups easily.
I kinda like pushups, but I don't like doing tons of anything; I'd rather do one or two hard sets of something than do them for 10 minutes. So I usually do them with my feet suspended, or on a stability ball, which poops me out faster.
Like Miz, never could work up to one armed push up though!
I had never done so many push-ups and so many different kinds until I did P90X. You think you know all the push up varieties then he adds more till your arms and core are screaming.
I used to do girly knee push ups now I can do real push ups!
Back in the non-overweight days, BC (Before Children), I could do 35 in 30 seconds. Now, one is enough. I plan on working up to 2 push-ups in 30 seconds. Wish me luck.
I understand that it takes 6 weeks to 6 months for the split in the ab wall to heal after giving birth. (so how do celebrity moms get ripped so quickly?) During that time, no crunches or other exercises that might hurt things worse.
Pushups and planks, however, should be fine. I'm thinking about taking on the pushup challenge now- it's a good way to focus my workouts for the next few weeks.
I loved watching that video – but why do they all have music so loud you can't hear the instructor?
I like pushups but I've had a niggly shoulder/chest/neck thing that has made me shy away from these kinds of things lately. Makes me mad!! I will try it when I'm a bit better.
Never, ever could do a one-hander though! And yes, it's core core core. You are right!
I love push ups. I do them every other night, along with planks and different variations of sit ups. Like Marste, I think I like push ups because they make me feel strong!
Wow. I do half that stuff with P90X but I'm definitely going to take pilates class, now!
A little hint I learned from my pilates trainer( the one who teaches the teachers and onmygodIjustsawapictureofhiminapilatesmagazine, making a really hard move look easy, as usual): Tighten your hamstrings and, especially, your glutes during pushups. It really helps!
Also, use a mat. It'll be a small barrier between you and the nastiness of the gym floor.
See that's the thing with yoga and pilates; they look kinda easy. And if you're doing them incorrectly, they ARE easy. Once you have good instruction, it's HARD, lol!
I once took a strength training class at the Y. On the first day the instructor was asking us questions to gauge our fitness level. "So," she said, "how do you feel about push-ups?"
"Well," I replied, "I can do them. Just not, you know, like 20 in a row."
"Oh. Cause I usually have you do 20 in a row…"
Oops.
I once took a strength training class at the Y. On the first day the instructor was asking us questions to gauge our fitness level. "So," she said, "how do you feel about push-ups?"
"Well," I replied, "I can do them. Just not, you know, like 20 in a row."
"Oh. Cause I usually have you do 20 in a row…"
Oops.
I once took a strength training class at the Y. On the first day the instructor was asking us questions to gauge our fitness level. "So," she said, "how do you feel about push-ups?"
"Well," I replied, "I can do them. Just not, you know, like 20 in a row."
"Oh. Cause I usually have you do 20 in a row…"
Oops.
OK, you may hate me Charlotte but I LOVE push-ups.. all kinds. I do so many verities of them that I can't keep up. You probably read one of my crazy posts on push-ups & how I love them! Plain one, feet on a bench, feet on a stability ball, hands close, diamond or wide. Hands on a medicine ball or Bosu, mixtures of all of the above. I know!!! I do NOT think they are boring! I guess they make me feel strong!
Now FJ did a post on a handstand push-up & I am thinking of trying that…. YIKES! I need a spotter though!
OH YES, & I do planks after some of those push-ups to… got to hold the core tight! 🙂
I'm still looking for the wires that are holding that guy up. (Guy wires?)
thank you
I hate/love/hate/love pushups. I hate them because they are hard, but I love them because they are hard. I dread getting to the pushup part of my workout, but I feel so good when I can bust out 50. I never made it to 100, but doggone if I wasn't going to maintain my ability to do about 50.
My new faves are traveling pushups. Anyone that has done the 30 Day Shred level 3 knows the torture/awesomeness, but you start in a pushup position, walk to the right a bit, pushup, reset, and then walk to the left, pushup, and rinse/repeat. Hurt so gooood!
The unexpected place I always feel it during pushups is my hamstrings. It is seriously a full body exercise! 🙂
Oh, and this is so on my list to try one cross training day!
yeah.
that white thing you see flying and waving in the air.
it's mah flag.
of surrender.
dang that was hard and what WAS up with her elbizzles?
lost my mind,
Miz.
I LOVE pushups. In bootcamp, I tell the girls that if there is one exercise I would have them do every single day, it would be pushups. We do them one handed, on a ball, with a twist, on a bench, you name it..we pushup. 🙂
🙂
Push ups CAN be boring- but when they're in challenge-form, I find it motivating and exciting.
Push ups are also really good for testing where exactly your fitness level is at, and I REALLY like that. They're such a fantastic all-over body exercise!
Bored? Do a full boy push up, turn to the left and raise your right knee to meet your left elbow, resume push-up position, do 1 push-up, turn right and bring opposite knee and elbow together. Continue.
good night, those are fantastic!
gott point out this though: when the instructor goes into elbow push-up mode, watch her arms.
she has hyperextended elbows (like mine!), and she locks them, instead of using her muscles to hold herself up. i have a reaaaally hard time correcting this, but have had it beaten into me by my yoga instructor.
locking one's elbows is terrifically hard on the joints (especially if they hyperextend!), and it doesn't accomplish one of the chief points of these exercises–working out the arm muscles!