The Method To Doing One Full Push Up

If you can do a push up, that's great, because you've already felt the rewards. Maybe you realise the increased core stability helps you sit up straight, get out of bed or doing an illustrious fly kick or something. Maybe you felt the rewards of an enhanced upper body endurance level. Even better, you know that you don't have to step foot in a gym or pick up a single piece of equipment to work your shoulders, your upper back, your deltoids and your core muscles. If you can do a push up, this guide won't be useful to you, but the applications for other exercises you're working towards may help.

However, there are those who can't do a push up yet, but if you start now, in a month's time, maybe you can.

Before March 9^th 2010, I couldn't do a single full push up but I could do wall push ups, knee push ups, cobra push ups, all of which were easy to do after a while. Many make the suggestion of starting out with the progression of wall push ups, to beginner knee push ups to advanced knee push ups before arriving at the full one. I tried that, maybe without the level of zeal I put into working towards doing the full push ups with a new method I discovered. It probably also took so long to go through the different push up progressions that once I thought I was ready to jump to the full push up, I still found the jump in strength required way too large and so inevitably gave up.

Nevertheless, the suggested methods of progressing through the different beginner push ups are great, because once you can do them, they're good for endurance. They won't make you any stronger. It's like lifting the most amount of shopping you can physically carry, you know that feeling when it's as if something is going to drop and break. It becomes tiring after a while of carrying it, and after practice, you can hold the same amount of shopping for longer. It's only until you increase the weight of the shopping, (as in adding more shopping bags) at which you increase your strength as you can carry more. The same is with push ups, which is why the knee push up may give you foundation strength, but you'd still need to bridge the strength gap between that and more advanced forms.

I hadn't done a single push up of any form for months before I restarted the challenge. I almost thought it was the case where some people can do them and other people just can't. I obviously couldn't, but after stumbling over a youtube video of a guy doing negative chin ups as a foundation way of doing proper chin ups, I wondered whether the same could be done with negative push ups. I found that there are videos of negative push ups too. Just check youtube when you're ready.

I started what was meant to be only a one phase training program of negative push ups, but it quickly turned into three as I was going along and rectified problems with the training.

• Phase 1: Negative Push Ups
• Phase 2: Negative Push Ups and Isometrics
• Phase 3: Negative Push Ups, Isometrics and Concentric Push Up Training

Phase 1: Negative Push Ups

Starting from the top of the push up, you lower yourself downwards as slowly as you possibly can. Negatives are also called concentric exercises as you contract the work muscle and shorten it. All you do is 1-3 of these. The aim is not to get tired or exhausted as it's not an endurance test. Rest for a few minutes then repeat again. This can be done while watching TV, working, doing other non-upper body exercises etc.

For the frist six days, I personally did no more than 6 negative push ups in day. After even a few days, you notice your ability to increase the amount of time it takes to lower back into the prone position. At a certain point though, inches from the floor, you may not be able to control the decent any more. Don't worry, you'll get better at that too, but if you're only 3-4 inches short of the ground, you can keep going with phase 1, or jump to Phase 2 (which is what I did).

Remember to take a day of complete rest between bouts of exercise. Resting is so important as it allows the muscle restructuring process to happen and the nervous system to catch up witch changes in the muscles. Experts say exercising 3-4 times a week allows enough rest to prevent over training. Even so, I was too zealous and didn't rest until the eighth day which most likely hindered my progress in strength. When I did take a whole day of rest (minimum of 24 hours), my muscles felt refreshed and stronger.

Another thing is form. There are several variations of push ups and even changing the distance between your feet changes the intensity of the exercise. Bigger inter-feet distance equals easier push ups as your core muscles are slightly less engaged. Bigger inter-hand distance may also mean easier push ups as your chest muscles do more of the work rather than your elbows and ligaments. If you've done no upper body training before, doing the easier wall push ups and knee push ups are beneficial for improving your ligament and joint strength so that you decrease the possibility of sustaining an injury.

Phase 2: Negative Push Ups and Isometrics

Doing push ups is more than just arm work, but the core has to be stable enough to hold the body through the entire push up movement. Therefore, doing isometric exercises such as the plank and side plank really does help. As you hold the plank for longer, eg. 30+ seconds, the negative push ups even feel easier. You still do negative push ups however, and isometrics will help you hold yourself only inches off the floor for longer. You don't need to do that many isometrics. It's also suggested that 6-10 seconds of an isometric exercise repeated with a rest interval in between has better effects on muscle strength than longer endurance holds.

Phase 3: Negative Push Ups, Isometrics and Concentric Push Ups

As a test, trying to lift up into the top of the push up from a prone position is a good indicator of how much strength you have developed. This phase is also called the concentric exercise phase, and the likes of T Bompa suggests it only for experienced athletes who have strength trained for three to five years. I didn't know that until after starting my self named phase 3, but it worked. It bridged the strength gap.

As chances are, you are lifting beyond your maximum weight when you do push ups from the prone position as you can't do push ups yet, so the movement will be slow, if not, negligible. At first, I could only lift up a little bit, two inches or so, but by the 25^th day of training, I could push up from prone position, lower to almost prone position before pushing back up again. Isometric training helps, and negatives were used, but more sparingly. One push up from prone position was followed by several minutes of rest, or until my arms were mine again. I'd do this, four or five times, but the rest period wasn't just spent waiting. I'd be on the computer, or watching TV, in the middle of reading or cleaning or something.

Finally, you can work on increasing the number of push ups. Increasing the number increases your level of endurance.

I myself, am looking forward to completing my 10 push ups challenge.

Has anyone done push up training or any other exercise with this method at all? I'd love to find out more about it, and why this worked for me, and the knee push up progressions didn't. Email me at urbantri@mail.com or visit urbantricks.blogspot.com.

References

Tudor O Bompa and Michael C Carrera Periodization Training For Sports 2nd Edition 2005

http://umanitoba.fitdv.com/new/articles/article.php?artid=355 – muscle groups and upperbody muscular endurance.