Subbing for Pushups

[Sara1000]

Man, I HATE pushups! And whether I do them on my knees or on my toes, I can't go down all the way to the floor (not & push back up).

With chest presses and flies, are pushups really necessary? With presses I can build up in tiny increments from where I am. What's so great about pushups?

[horsemom2]

Have you tried them against a step, a higher counter or in a doorway? Can always increase intensity with a band around the back .

Barb S
who hates doing anything on the floor even pushups with handles.

[Gibbee]

There is a more upper body involvement development with push ups.

When I was in college, I joined a test group for a study by one of the graduate students. It was testing whether or not push ups or bench presses built more upper body strength in women.

The push ups won by a land slide when we were tested 12 weeks later. Guess which group I was in? Push ups! I hated them so much but I saw nice upper body development (back when I had to work to gain weight). I remember being so bummed when I was selected for push ups and not bench presses, but I liked the results in the end. I really need to work on them now - because body weight exercises are good for you and easy to do on the road.

[Gibbee]

Originally Posted by horsemom2

Have you tried them against a step, a higher counter or in a doorway? Can always increase intensity with a band around the back .

Barb S
who hates doing anything on the floor even pushups with handles.

Great suggestions! The band adds more resistance so if you're not hip on getting down on the ground, you can still up the challenge!

[sciencelady]

Pushups are also a major core exercise - when I've done pushup centered workouts, the next day I feel like someone sucker punched me in the gut! You don't get that "benefit" when doing chest presses and flies on your back. If i recall correctly in previous pushup discussions, women gained greater ability to do pushups by improving their core strength through just holding the planks.

[Sara1000]

OK, OK, I'll keep doing them! It's good to know there is science behind the suffering!

[Yogadad]

Hi,

Sciencelady was right on the money w/ the push-ups being a major core exercise so they definitely are different than bench presses or flyes.

There are variations you can do such as doing them on a stability ball, the more your torso is on the ball the easier they are, the further down your legs you go the tougher.

Also, a cool variation w/ a swiss ball is to actually place the ball against a wall and do standing push-ups w/ you hands on the ball. When you find just the right body position (leaning towards the ball) your whole core should start "talking to you! ".

Whenever I first show this to my clients they look at me like "what will that do for me", but when they find that "Sweet spot" their whole mid section starts to shake from trying to maintain stability. Plus the unstable surface of the ball really fires up a lot of other muscles in your arms and upper torso to help you stabilize while you are doing the pushup.

Oh, one way you could incorporate the core more if you absolutely don't want to do pushups is to do resistance tubing presses from a split stance position. So you'd anchor the tubing into a door (make sure it's a heavy duty door that can lock, like a typical front door or garage door), then place one foot in front of the other in a standing position, walk out until you feel suitable resistance and then do your presses or flyes.

This position engages your core as a stabilizer since you are in a standing position and don't have a bench to stabilize you.

You can vary it by pressing one arm at a time, either all one side then the other, or alternating.

You can also just hold the handle in one hand, place the other handle on the door knob (but make sure it is very secure (this works best with flexible handles and probably won't work w/ the molded plastic ones as well) and walk out until you feel the resistance.

Then from there do one arm presses at a time from a split stance position. If you're working the right arm, the left foot should be forward. This really engages the core.

A further variation is to add rotation, so as you press forward you rotate the back foot as you press, so this adds a dynamic core component to it (the other way works the core from a stability standpoint which is VERY important).

Hope this all made some sense

Best,

Scott

[Sara1000]

Yikes! Thanks Scott!

[Yogadad]

Originally Posted by Sara1000

Yikes! Thanks Scott!

No problemo!

Hope it's helpful!

Best,

Scott

[lreidgreen]

How about doing the plank to push-up progression? Anthony DiLuglio also calls these the "super plank" on Firepower. You start out in plank position on your hands then go down to your forearms then back up again. Alternate sides or do some starting on your left than the same amount starting on your right. This probably works your core more than your arms and shoulders but its worth a try.

Leslie