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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Push ups are a great strength training exercise. They strengthen the muscles in your arms, shoulders, chest, back, and stomach, and are one of the single best exercises for your upper body.

Too bad I suck at them.

Since I'm taking a break from running to help improve the ITBS in my right knee, I've been walking regularly and incorporating yoga and at-home strength training (I'm starting to second-guess canceling my gym membership two months ago). So, I've been trying to do some form of ab work on a daily basis as well as push ups. Yesterday, I pushed (pun intended) myself a little on the push ups and tried to do some regular push ups instead of the girl ones I usually do (knees on the floor).

I could do two.

And I think any trainer would question the quality of those two. My arms wobbled, my elbows did not come to 90 degree angles, and I struggled through both of them. It was either those two regular push ups or the 3 sets of girl push ups that left me sore today. I can feel it in my chest and back especially.

Geez, I'm never gonna be cut out to be a Navy Seal.

6 comments:

Junie B said...

ok you need to work on that, because i can do 20. wait thats girl pushups, but they're still hard. ;o) i prolly can do more than 20 at a time maybe..i know i do 3 sets of 20.

Erin said...

I don't think I can even manage the girl push ups. Don't feel bad. At least you are doing more than I am.

miss petite america said...

2 today, but soon you'll be able to do 50! keep at it. it does get easier.

MNFirefly said...

Take it one day at a time. You will do great! Don't feel SO bad.

teacherwoman said...

I suck at push-ups. I used to be awesome. But not so much anymore. I had a friend who told me her dad would make her do push ups everyday when she got home from school. and she had to make her boobs hit the short glass he would place under her chest. Crazyness! I guess for some people it wouldn't take much to get their chest that low! I want to see you drop and give me 3 today! Hehe

brunettechicagogal said...

It's all about the abs/core. I couldn't do a single push-up five years ago. I started taking this ass-kicking class called sports conditioning, and we had to do a series of 20 pushups several times throughout the class. I was a wreck. But I worked at it, and now I can do about 25 full-body push-ups before I drop. Keep at it; you'll see progress soon! There's also nothing wrong with the "girly" push-ups. I do those when I can't sustain the full-body kind anymore, and you still get a good upper-bod workout.