How to Do Your First Push Up Pt. 2

Ok, so last week I went on a mini-rant about how using push ups and pull ups as a litmus test for fitness is a bad idea - especially for women.

And I was reminded of this yesterday when, while taking a boxing class for the first time, a fellow female classmate looked terrified when we were asked, as a class, to mix push ups in with our heavy bag hits and squats.

“Um….” She looked terrified. “I can’t even do a push up.”

I waved her over to a stack of giant tires.

“Not many females can - let’s use the tire.”

I took a minute after the class to give her what has become my soap box talk on push ups - the one I gave all of you last week. Click here if you missed it.

Push ups are an incredible exercise and even better than that - make for the perfect performance goal. Remember that setting a performance goal can be a helpful way of guiding your training. (In other words, you want to lose 20 pounds, but if you focus on working your way up to a push up, there's a good chance you'll see some weight loss as a by-product of training your strength.)

If you want to work your way up to a push up, here are a few strategies you can work in to your routine.

1. Elevated push ups

Doing what used to be known as "girl push ups" or push ups from your knees, actually only makes you better at doing one thing - push ups from your knees. Core strength is a crucial component to performing push ups, and if you want to work your way to doing this exercise correctly, you'll need to keep your core involved.

2. Negative push ups (with a positive attitude :-)

Also known as eccentric push ups (no, not push ups with flair), this style of exercise means that you are going to spend more time under tension - blah, blah, blah science. I can just tell you that this style of training will do two things - get you to your goal quickly, and make you sore as hell the next day.

Start in a high plank position and lower yourself down as slowly as possible - when you can't hold yourself up any longer, drop to your knees. Use your knees to raise back up to the high plank position (remember, this movement is only about going down) and repeat.

Technique tips:

Don't let your core sag - you want to keep your body in a straight line, and there is a tendency to keep the shoulders away from the floor while your hips and lower back sag. If possible, balance a PVC pipe on your back or record yourself for form. I used to do five sets of five in my office back when I had an office job.

With the door locked...

Slow is the name of the game here.

3. Push ups to a stack of cones

Similar to the elevated push ups, training yourself to a stack of cones can be a helpful way to gauge your progress once you've been training for a month or two. In the video below, I've got a stack of 13 cones. Once I can hit 10 reps, I take off a cone and train until I can hit 10 reps to the cone. My goal is to get down to one cone.