I got my first push-up!
I've never done a single push-up in my entire life... until now.
I've been skinny and sedentary for basically my whole life and my arms are made of jello. Being female doesn't make it any easier either. I started this blog to encourage myself to live a healthier lifestyle and I've decided that my first goal is to do a push-up.
Honestly, I thought I could do them until I recorded myself and watched the world's most horrid form play back on my phone. I genuinely thought my chest was close to the ground but in reality, it barely moved an inch. My arms were flared out and my head was aimed straight at the ground instead of aligning with my body.
In February, a video of this girl showed up on my feed. She showed her progression from doing push-ups on the wall, to doing knee push-ups and then eventually full push-ups. What inspired me the most is that initially, her knee push-ups looked really bad, like worse than mine. But at the end of the video, she was repping out full push-ups like it was nobody's business. If she can do it, why can't I?
I started recording videos of myself doing push-ups and tracking each day. I started in February and would try push-ups every few days.
Days 1-3, I did 3 sets of 5 knee push-ups. I couldn't go all the day down and I had to take breaks in between the 5 reps because it was so tiring. My form was bad because my arms were flared out and my body wasn't in a straight line.
For days 4-8, I learned the cue to "push yourself away from the ground" before you start a push-up (so your shoulders are slightly rounded). It made all of the difference and my body was finally straight. I still did 3 sets of 5 reps, but my form was a lot better and I didn't have to take breaks in between the 5 reps.
It was now March, and unfortunately I stopped pursuing the push-ups for a month. My elbow was hurting and in between all of this, I was also lifting weights at the gym (see my post before), which included some push exercises, so I was worried that I was pushing myself too hard. I also got another unrelated injury.
In April, I decided to ditch the gym routine that I wrote about in my last post. I had decided to shift to a majority calisthenics/bodyweight workout, so the push-ups became my new "push" exercise instead of bench press and I resumed my push-up progress. I was a lot more consistent with it and actually tried to do it every other day.
On days 9-12, I did 3 sets of 6-8 reps of knee push-ups.
Days 13-15, I did 3 sets of 10 reps, and honestly, it felt really easy to hit 10 knee push-ups (at least on the first set).
On day 16, I decided to try a full push-up. I'd say I got 80% of the way there. Some people would count it as a push-up, but I'm really strict on myself. For days 16 and 17, I'd do 1 full "push-up" and 4 negative push-ups.
Today is day 18, and I surprised myself and did 3 with full ROM. I'm glad I got it on video because I kept watching it over and over since my form was so good compared to days 16 and 17. My elbows weren't flared out, my body was straight, and my arms went down past 90 degrees.
I honestly thought it'd take a lot longer for me to get my first push-up, but I'm pleasantly surprised.
If anyone reading this happens to be working towards their first push-up, here are learnings from my experience (and if you can't do :
I see a lot of people say that knee push-ups are useless and to do incline push-ups instead. I disagree with the fact that knee push-ups are useless because they made up the majority of my training. I think knee pushups are useful for building up the necessary strength for a full-pushup. While incline push-ups help you practice full ROM, knee push-ups were just more satisfying for me to record myself do and to watch the video back (which was my main motivator to keep going). They also helped me get used to having my wrists bent and loading them. I'm not hating on incline push-ups; I know many people found them helpful, but I just want to defend knee push-ups.
Speaking of wrists, warm up your wrists before you practice (like at least 5 minutes).
For form, make sure your elbows are not flared out (they can be at a 45 degree angle or close to your body, depending on the variation you want to do). To keep your body straight, "push away from the floor" before going down. To make sure I don't accidentally do the worm instead of a push-up, tightening my core and glutes helps to keep my body straight too. I have my hands slightly rotated outwards because it makes it easier for me to do a push-up.
Don't practice every day if you are going to failure. Each time I trained, I either went to failure or stopped 1-2 reps before failure. I found that spacing my practicing to every other day helped me recover well enough to avoid injury.
Record yourself. You will see what's wrong with your form and it's also a nice way of seeing yourself improve.
My next goal is to do 5 push-ups. Thanks for reading!